


cherry cola

by starlightkun



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, F/M, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Modern Royalty, Strangers to Lovers, another one of idols with kids skfjgjej, oh wait i forgot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26907151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightkun/pseuds/starlightkun
Summary: in which you prefer to talk business rather than bloodlines, and meet someone who isn’t quite a part of either
Relationships: Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	1. [one]

Another day, another boring ass gala. Being a princess wasn’t all wild parties, fun, and cute princes. Actually, it was _never_ like that. Especially since having royal blood means nothing anymore. For fuck’s sake, this is the 21st century, royalty were just figureheads in whatever country they were from. Which only made these galas even worse, seeing pretentious jerks pretend to be more important than they actually were just because their great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was seventh in line for the throne or something stupid like that. Nobody even really knew what to call themselves, everyone you encountered was either a prince or princess or lord or lady, there was never any consistency to the nobility titles given. The strongest royal lineage that was confirmable was your own. Your father was technically a King from his mother’s side, making you a legitimate princess. Not that it mattered to you.

Thankfully, your parents hated the idea of being royalty as much as you did. The only reason they still played along with it and attended things like this was that modern royalty had taken over business and economics, meaning that connections with distant Lords and Ladies could make or break your success. Because of this, at every function like this, at least one member of your family had to attend to keep up a good image.

While your father carried the important royal connection, your mother was the daughter of the head of the Jeon Conglomerate, one of the biggest assortments of companies, almost all owned by other members of the Jeon lineage. And with her away on a business trip to Dubai and your father taking care of your little brother’s cold at home, that left you at a charity gala that you were sure nobody attending even knew the name of.

Fortunately, you weren’t completely alone, your older cousin Soyeon had accompanied you, acting as your own personal buffer between your awkward self and the barrage of business tycoons who assumed so little of you. They didn’t know that you were majoring in economics and business to prepare to take over your parents’ economic empire, which was information that you didn’t offer up because you didn’t care for them belittling your hard work. Most actually assumed that your parents had your little brother to groom him to be the family heir once he grew up. But actually, your parents weren’t grooming either of you to do so. They always encouraged you from an early age to pursue anything you wanted to do in life and never once pressured you to take on the burden from them. This was all your choice.

One older man had just taken a jab at your outfit for the night, which you found nothing wrong with. It was an elegant suit, a deep black embroidered with rubies and amber to give the appearance of flames licking along your shoulders, back, and wrapping around your sides. He had said something about nearly mistaking you for a man, especially with your hair tied back, and you controlled your expression very carefully to remain neutral. One day you would buy his company out from under his arthritic, wrinkly fingers and there would be nothing he could do about it. So, it didn’t matter what he thought of your clothing choices now. But that didn’t mean that your jaw didn’t clench ever so slightly.

Soyeon, always the mediator, gave a very fake titter before touching your arm, “Y/N, I am absolutely parched. Could you get me a glass of water?”

“Of course, Soyeon.” You replied brightly, thankful that she had given you an escape from the circle.

You practically skipped away from them with joy, already feeling much freer. Soyeon was always the most business-like out of you two. Since you were two girls born to the same royal family, set to inherit different branches of the Jeon Conglomerate, you’d been compared since birth. Unlike your parents, hers had been preparing her since birth to take over the company, her mother being unable to have more children after her. And Soyeon had taken it all in stride. She was really the reason that you wanted to inherit the company from your parents, seeing her passion and natural wit for it lit the same kind of spark in you. Giggling over baking cookies at sleepovers, you two had already planned company takeovers together and how you could merge branches and between the two of you, own 49% of the conglomerate, almost the majority. And you were _excited_ to do it with her.

But even with that, while all the lofty ideas came from your head, she was the one to actually plan out how to execute them. The fine details and technicalities still weren’t familiar to you yet. Just like at the gala, she was able to take every assumption and judgment about her in stride and carry on while you could only handle so much before you felt like you were going to implode.

At the drinks table, all of the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks were in the same champagne glasses. You grabbed one with a dark red color, carefully sniffing the contents of it.

“Cherry cola.” A voice spoke from your side, and you cast a sidelong glance at the brunette boy who had been standing there when you initially approached the table. Giving him a once-over, you figured he was about your age, and in his hand was a drink identical to yours.

He took a sip of it. “If you’re looking for something stronger, I’m afraid that CEO Jung has already drunk most of the hard liquor.”

The corners of your mouth twitched up at his comment, CEO Jung was the CEO of a smaller company called NCTech and was known to be a heavy drinker. “Damn, I was hoping to get fucking trashed tonight.” You joked, taking a swig of your cola and immediately feeling refreshed. “Please understand that was sarcasm.”

“Of course.” He nodded, finishing off his drink. “I’m Wong Yukhei.”

“Oh. I’m afraid I’m not as well-versed in Chinese companies.”

“Ah, you talk business, not bloodlines. And my father’s the CFO of NCTech’s branch in Hong Kong, by the way.”

“Well of course, bloodlines are nothing of import these days.” You scoffed, looking over the tall boy’s features again. He was handsome, that was for sure, but you couldn’t find any familiarity in them. You didn’t even know that NCTech had opened a Chinese branch. “I’m Y/L/N Y/N.”

“Ah, Princess Y/N.” Yukhei gave a shallow bow, and you narrowed your eyes as you tried to figure out whether he was being serious, poking fun at you, or poking fun at your bullshit title.

“You talk bloodlines, not business.”

His voice softened as he leaned forward to speak to you, “Only when my father is watching to make sure that I make a good impression on the One True Princess.”

You covered your mouth to keep from outright snorting, replying in an even softer tone, “I’ve always hated when people called me that.”

“I can imagine, and the fact that every person who cares about bloodlines is trying to shove their heir onto you must be even worse.”

“Is that what your father is trying to do right now?”

“Actually, he’s trying to cut a deal with your father about something in Hong Kong, but my mother wouldn’t mind if that happened too.”

You completely ignored the second part of his statement, already zeroed in on the deal in Hong Kong. “Oh, then he’s talking to the wrong person. My mother deals with the international affairs and my father runs the domestic side of the company.”

Yukhei seemed to understand, straightening his tie. “I’ll let my father know. It was nice talking to you, Ms. Y/L/N.”

“You too, I guess.” You nodded politely to him as he walked away, vaguely confused as to how this had been your first meeting with him.

With a shrug, you picked up a glass, sniffed, then took a small taste to make sure it was water. Thankfully it was, and you carried it back to Soyeon. Your cousin was chatting it up with a different group of people this time, people you actually knew and liked. It was all the “princes” and other heirs to the various companies.

“Ah, Princess Y/N!” Kwon Jiyong, an older and more traditional “prince” greeted you formally.

“Hello, Prince Jiyong, Hyunbin.” You also greeted his younger brother, who was towering over him by his side.

“Hi, Ms. Y/L/N.” The younger man’s deep voice said, accompanied by a small smile.

“Y/N!” Lee Minho, the only “prince” you were ever really close with, gave you a friendly hug, nearly spilling your cousin’s water all over you.

“Hey Minho! How was your trip back home?” You asked your friend as you handed the glass to Soyeon. Minho wasn’t technically royal blood, his mother had married into the Lee family, displacing them from their small village to the busy hub of Seoul. Being not from royalty and having not grown up around all of this, Minho was easily the most relaxed “prince” around you, and even admitted to finding the whole idea stupid. His non-royalty was refreshing to you.

“Oh, it’s just as horribly hot and dangerous as when I had left. It was fantastic!” He grinned, elbowing the boy next to him. “Mark even came with me!”

The two Lee cousins were quite strange among royalty. Both of their mothers had married into the Lee family, Mark’s from Canada, an even further trek than Minho’s mountain village. Many had given the family strange looks when Mark had first unwillingly joined the family, several years before Minho. This initial ostracization pushed Mark to become much more set in the royal ways than his newcomer cousin.

“Yes, it was incredibly fun.” He agreed, offering you a small bow. “Good to see you, Ms. Y/L/N.”

“You too, Mark.” Your eyes flitted over the group. “Oh my gosh, is that Jeon Jungkook, my long-lost cousin?”

“You saw me at Christmas, Y/N.” Your cousin, who was also significantly older than you scoffed, still with a smile on his lips. Instead of trying to inherit his parents’ branch of the Jeon Conglomerate, Jungkook had instead set out on his own to make connections between your family’s conglomerate and the Bangtan Group.

“Which was almost eight months ago.”

“Fine, I’ll visit more.”

“Good.”

* * *

The gala finally ended, and you waited outside for your driver to come pick you up. Soyeon had left the event early, she was to be your original ride home, but there was some kind of pet emergency with the family cat. Normally in this scenario, you’d prefer to take the bus or walk, but your clothes would’ve brought too much unneeded attention and your father wanted you home as soon as possible, so you called Gyeomjin. Soon enough, the familiar silver car pulled up to the front steps you had been sitting on. Climbing into the passenger seat, you gave the man a friendly hello as you buckled your seatbelt.

“Hello, Ms. Y/N.” He replied with a fond smile. “How was the gala?”

“Could’ve been better. How is Gukkie doing?” You inquired about your brother. When you had left the house, he was the middle of screaming his head off because of his sore throat.

“Mr. Inguk could be better. Last I saw, he was sucking on a frozen pacifier, still crying.”

“Me too, bud.”

* * *

When you arrived home, you changed out of your gala outfit before going towards the living room, where you could already hear the quiet noises of your little brother. Softly stepping into the room, you said a soft hello to your father. Inguk was cradled to his chest, the boy’s face burrowed into the crook of your father’s neck.

“He’s quiet.” You commented, sitting on the couch beside them.

“Finally.” Your father replied, shifting ever so slightly so he could look at you. “How was the gala? I hope not too terribly boring.”

“It was nice once Soyeon and I got to talking to the _princes._ ” You put air quotes around ‘princes,’ earning a small smile from your dad.

“The older men were—”

“Like they always are, assuming I’m going to marry rich and keep living off of Daddy’s money and let Inguk run the company.”

He let out a light chuckle, his free hand coming up to ruffle your hair a little bit. “That’ll just make it even better when you and Soyeon take over their companies in a decade.”

You nodded, eyes falling over your brother fondly. “Dad, I have a question.”

“What about?”

“NCTech. Do we have any open deals with them?”

He thought for a moment, “I know that the Hong Kong CFO, CFO Wong, had tried to set up a meeting with me about stocks in Hong Kong, but I had Ms. Jaehee tell his secretary that he should contact your mother instead. Why?”

“I met his son, Wong Yukhei, for the first time today.”

“And?”

“What do you mean?”

“Tell me about him.”

Ever since you’d committed to taking over the company, your father had been giving you his pointers on analyzing people as potential business partners or business threats. So far, he’d had you report to him on Kwon Hyunbin, CEO Jung and his son Yoonoh, the Lee cousins, and even your own cousins Jungkook and Soyeon. Most of it was just for practice, you weren’t actually planning on betraying Soyeon or the Lees. Well, at least Minho, since he seemed less interested in royalty and companies than Mark. You could never read Mark very well, it would be a toss-up as to whether or not you’d be associates in the future.

“He’s young, my age I’d guess. Interested in bloodlines more than business. Follows his dad’s orders. Doesn’t seem like much of a threat to me. Is NCTech on your radar?”

“For the longest time they weren’t, but recently they’re on the up and up. I’m keeping an eye on them before trying to make any solid deals.”

Inguk’s pacifier suddenly fell out of his mouth as he started babbling incoherently. You reached out, silently asking your dad to hold him. He obliged, probably tired of having to take care of him for the past five hours. Your brother immediately resettled in your lap, and you popped his pacifier back in his mouth. “Hey, handsome.”

Looking back at your father, you could practically see the bags under his eyes. “Go to sleep, I’ll put him to bed.”

“You sure?”

“Of course. You deserve some sleep.”

“Thanks. Get your assignments done?”

“Always.”

“Good. Have a great day at school tomorrow, sweetie.” Your father stood up, kissed your head, then your brother’s, then retreated back towards the master bedroom.

Your brother was still wide awake when you looked down to him, and with a sigh, you stood up. “I don’t know about you bud, but I’m hungry.”

An hour and a half later, you’d finally put your brother down to sleep in his room beside your parents’ and flopped down into your own. You had a couple messages from some of your school friends in your business majors group chat, Hyungwon asking what the assignment was, as always. Thankfully Taeyong had already set him straight, meaning that you could click your phone off for good that night.


	2. [two]

You started seeing Wong Yukhei at more events after that charity gala, and at each one he would smile and nod to you from across the room, never approaching you once. Three different Christmas parties, a New Year’s ball, and the latest one was CEO Jung’s fourth wedding. Or fifth. You’d lost track of how many, since there were some even before you’d been born. Neither Soyeon nor Jungkook could make it, so you were attached to your parents for pretty much most of the ceremony. When it was time for the reception, you gladly took your little brother in his cute little suit from your mother as she went to use the restroom.

Propping him up on your hip, you adjusted his small suit jacket before booping his nose. “There you go, handsome.”

“As handsome as me?” The joking voice of Minho met your ears as your friend sidled up to your side.

Taking in his slicked back hair and foundation that was a shade too light for him you snorted. “You look like a thumb, Min.”

“My aunt did my hair like this.” He grumbled, fingers attempting to mess it up, but it seemed to be practically glued on.

“Oh my god, does that mean that Mark looks like a thumb too?” You got on your tiptoes to peer around, trying to find the other Lee cousin.

“He’s not here. It’s just me, my aunt, and my uncle.”

“Ah, that’s why you’re bothering me.”

“I love them, but they just… I don’t know. They’re way too into the royalty thing.”

Inguk suddenly stuck a finger out at Minho. “Min! Min! Min! Min!”

“Yeah bud, that’s Min.” To get him to stop pointing, you offered your own pointer finger to him, which he gladly grabbed in his little toddler hand. “He’s stuck in the ‘repeat everything he hears’ stage right now.”

“Min!”

“Better than when he would just angrily babble at me.” He commented, reaching out to poke his cheek, earning a tiny giggle. “Hey, he doesn’t hate me anymore.”

Then, you saw your mother approaching you, a big smile on her face, “I’m back! Hello, Minho. How are you?”

“I’m doing very well, Mrs. Y/L/N.” Minho sounded almost robotic as he spoke, adding a polite bow. “You look lovely, how are you this evening?”

“Ooh, you’re getting better at that.” She commented proudly, holding her hands out to take Inguk back. “And I’m doing fantastic. I need to go find my husband, I’ll see you two later.”

* * *

An hour later, you were getting tired of your heels and excused yourself from the group you had been talking to, consisting of Minho, Hyunbin, Jung Yoonoh—who seemed even less thrilled to be at his father’s wedding than you—and the six princes set to inherit the five branches of the Aroha Conglomerate: Moon Bin, Yoon Sanha, Lee Dongmin, Kim Myungjun, and the Park brothers, Jinwoo and Minhyuk. You didn’t frequently see the Aroha Conglomerate princes, most were older than you and much more involved in their family businesses as well as graduate school, making them unavailable for most events. This was the first time in probably two years that you’d seen them all together somewhere.

Sitting yourself at your assigned table at the wedding reception, you leaned down to unstrap your silver heels, then tucked them under the tablecloth so that nobody could see that they were off. And your dress should be long enough to cover your bare feet too, as long as you didn’t move too quickly. Feeling someone nearing you from your right, you turned to see Wong Yukhei, and wondered if he was actually coming to talk to you or was just going to give you another small smile as he passed by. As he got closer, he slowed until he was standing in front of you, hands stuffed in his pants pockets as he looked down at you with a slightly tilted head.

“I never did get to tell you Happy New Year’s.” He abruptly began your conversation, and you shot an eyebrow up.

“Or Merry Christmas. Maybe because you never tried to talk to me.” You retorted, quickly crossing your ankles and concealing your feet under your dress.

“ _You_ never tried to talk to _me_.”

“I’m not the one who is so desperate for a Happy New Year’s.”

“Well anyway, Happy Late New Year’s, Princess Y/N.” Yukhei bowed, still with his hands in his pockets.

“And a late Merry Christmas to you.” You replied dryly, still observing him curiously. “You always find me when I’m alone. I hope you know that’s a little creepy, Yukhei.”

He took a hand out of his pocket to cover his face as he sheepishly grimaced. “That’s not my intention, Ms. Y/L/N.”

“Mhm. You can sit down next to me, if you’d like.”

“Thank you, but my father actually sent me out to get him some food, I just figured I’d stop to say hi.”

“Okay, well hi.”

“Hi.” The corner of his mouth curled up into half of a smile. “I’ll see you later, Ms. Y/L/N.”

“Bye, Yukhei.” You watched him walk away, left just as mildly confused as you were the first time you met him.

Shaking your head, you stood back up and walked back to rejoin your friends. Squeezing in between Yoon Sanha and Kwon Hyunbin, you felt quite short as you listened to the conversation the circle was having. To your amusement, they were gossiping about the new Mrs. Jung. Not really gossiping, it was more betting on how long the marriage would last. Even Yoonoh had put in his own two cents, clearly not fazed by his father’s rotating carousel of wives.

“All valid pessimism about CEO Jung’s love life aside, I have a question.” You spoke up, immediately turning all of the princes’ attention to you. “Do any of you know much about Wong Yukhei? His father is the CFO in Hong Kong for NCTech.”

Your friends thought for a moment before Sanha spoke up, “He’s in one of my programming classes and never attends class except to take tests, but other than that, not much.”

Yoonoh added with some humor in his voice, “I’ve only met him once, he never leaves his cave.”

“His cave?”

Lee Dongmin—whose family’s branch of the Aroha Conglomerate dealt with technology—immediately perked up. “Oh, everybody in tech is saying that he’s going to make the next big breakthrough in cryptocurrency and make NCTech rich before he’s 25.”

“Really?” You raised an eyebrow at Yoonoh, who only shrugged noncommittally.

“Yes. And from what I’ve been seeing, he’s starting to attend more events.” Hyunbin added. His knowledge of the social and royalty part of business was very in-depth, he attended almost every event ever, while Jiyong took care of most of the economic and business side of things. If you wanted information about anyone’s social relations at royal events, Kwon Hyunbin could answer any question you had.

“Hm.”

* * *

You were in the car with your grandfather, leg bouncing nervously under your deep emerald dress as you sat beside him in the backseat, Gyeomjin behind the wheel. Your grandfather was the Director for all the companies of the Jeon Conglomerate, everybody’s boss. Because of this, you didn’t see him too often, and when you did he just made you a little nervous. He took the royal part and family part of business very seriously. Between Jungkook leaving the company and your complete disregard for royal lineage, the two of you were definitely his least favorite grandchildren. Everybody knew that Soyeon was his favorite, she had the perfect balance between care for royalty and care for the family business. But it was your determination to inherit your parents’ branch that had you alone in the car with him and not completely disowned.

According to your grandfather, he felt that it was time that you started coming with him to business dinners to prepare to do this yourself and get a feel for interpersonal business relations. Soyeon usually accompanied him to these dinners, but she was studying abroad for the semester, meaning that he had to find some kind of replacement for his favorite. He didn’t say it in so many words, but that was the general idea you got from him.

Pulling up at the restaurant, you reminded yourself to take deep breaths as you exited the car. Your grandfather immediately bypassed the hostess at the front as she bowed to the two of you walking by. He ushered you upstairs, then back towards a private room. Walking in, your nose wrinkled at the heavy smell of alcohol already in the air, and you had to fight it back down to give a presentable face. The room was fairly large, white walls decorated with elegant gold lighting, and a gold and garnet chandelier hung above the dark mahogany table, giving the entire room a slightly reddish glow. 

Seated around the table were a couple businessmen you’d met on several occasions, but some were CEOs, CFOs, and COOs you’d only ever _heard of,_ much less met or shared a dinner with. You knew your grandfather had old and powerful connections, but you didn’t expect to see people more powerful than the President. And you knew that the older someone was, the more tightly intertwined they were with royal lineage, meaning that you’d have to take great care in addressing these men as royalty, not as businessmen.

One pair that you weren’t expecting to see there were CFO Wong and his son. Wong Yukhei shifted nervously under your grandfather’s gaze, and you could see his eyes momentarily narrow at the two. It was only a split-second, but you could already tell that nobody wanted the Wongs to be here. Not your grandfather, nor CEO Shin, nor COO Lee, nor CEO Kim, nor CFO Choi, nor their assistants or wives. 

You had the urge to give Yukhei a friendly smile, but all eyes were on you and your grandfather, and deviating from the popular opinion of these people could be extremely dangerous. Your grandfather was already disgruntled about bringing you, you knew that you couldn’t do anything that he would perceive as tarnishing his reputation. So, you just nodded politely to everybody else before following him to the only two empty seats left. He was at the head of the table, while you were sandwiched between Yukhei and CEO Shin’s wife, who smelled heavily of perfume and cigarettes.

A waitress came by to take drink orders before announcing that they’d be brought out soon, along with the food that the others had already ordered before your arrival.

“Where’s Jeon Soyeon today?” COO Lee asked your grandfather, not even looking in your direction.

“Princess Soyeon is completing a semester abroad in America right now, so I decided to bring my other granddaughter, Y/L/N Y/N.” He introduced you, and you forced a small smile of greeting.

Murmurs immediately broke out between the wives to your left, your name sparking familiarity with them. Mrs. Choi leaned over to whisper into her husband’s ear, and his eyes widened almost comically. “It’s a pleasure to meet you then, Princess Y/N.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lord Choi.” You replied, trying to ignore the fact that word was spreading around everyone that you were the One True Princess. How they didn’t know that your mother had married the most definite King was beyond you, these men were supposed to know the happenings of everybody.

“Why is this the first time you’ve brought her, Hyukmin?” CEO Shin queried almost accusingly, watching out of the corner of his eye as his wife started fawning over you.

“Here, you have some hair falling out of your bun, my dear.” She leaned in close as she tucked your hair back in, giving you a clear view of her foundation-caked wrinkles and filling your nostrils with her overwhelming ancient-smelling perfume. “You are just so beautiful, you know? You truly are a princess, I knew as soon as you walked in the door with that dress on. Absolute royalty, you are.”

You coughed lightly to get the odor out of your lungs as best you could, turning your grimace into a falsely bashful smile, “Ah, thank you, Lady Shin. I think that your ensemble is quite elegant tonight.”

The wife on the other side of Lady Shin, who you knew to be Lady Lee, suddenly grabbed your left hand in her much colder one, “I don’t see a ring on that finger! You know, I have two grandsons that are very handsome, if you would even think about taking them, Princess. The younger of the two, Seunghyun, needs a little whipping into shape, but I think you’d find that Donghae is very capable and—”

“Thank you, Lady Lee.” You cut her off as courteously as you could, marriage was the last thing on your mind, and you knew that both of her grandsons were considerably older than you. “But at the moment I’m in the middle of my studies, so I’m afraid that I’m not thinking about marriage as of now.”

“What are you studying?” A deep voice suddenly spoke up from beside you, and you turned to look at Yukhei with your head tilted ever so slightly.

“I’m double-majoring in business and economics with a special focus in takeovers, and I’m minoring in English and Japanese.”

His eyebrows shot up as you kept listing off your degrees, and you could see the slight change in your grandfather’s face at the other end of the table. It looked almost like pride.

“No Mandarin?” Yukhei asked cheekily, seeing as he was probably fluent in it himself.

“Ah, I studied Mandarin for about sixteen years, and Cantonese for seven, so I figured that I should learn some others.”

You didn’t really want to brag, but that’s still what it felt like as you stated the truth. Yukhei’s jaw practically dropped once you had revealed that, and you knew that everyone else had been listening to your conversation. Glancing away from Yukhei’s deep brown eyes to your grandfather, his prideful gaze had turned to a disapproving one once it focused on the boy beside you. You figured that he disapproved of you talking to Yukhei for so long, as it seemed that the others had been mostly ignoring CFO Wong.

Awkwardly turning away from the boy, you took a deep drink of your cherry cola that had been brought out moments ago. After you had talked about your studies, not only were the ladies fawning over you and trying to set you up with every bachelor in their lineage, but the lords had also taken interest in you, grilling you about your business and economics studies. It was a lot to deal with.

The food being brought out gave you some reprieve, and as you ate, you realized that Yukhei hadn’t said anything since he asked about Mandarin. Looking at him from the corner of your eye, you saw his gaze flicker between his bowl of food and you. You lifted your fork to your mouth to avoid answering the obnoxious question CEO Kim had just asked you during the dessert course. Taking your time in swallowing, you rolled your neck in an attempt to get the crick out from having to sit up straight for so long. You longed to be back home, sinking into the dent in the couch that your body had made over the years which would surely give you scoliosis soon.

“Ah no, Lord Kim, I have not given much thought to pursuing other careers. This is really what I want to do.” You informed him after dabbing at the corner of your mouth, voice staying calm and level as you addressed him cordially.

“Well it’s good to have another plan.”

“I don’t need one. Once I graduate I’m taking over my parents’ branch and will keep growing it from there.”

“All of your languages, you could easily be a translator or interpreter anywhere you wanted. You could live or work abroad, that would be quite interesting.”

“I like living here, and I’m learning languages in order to communicate with future business partners, associates, or interests.”

“Tell yes, but how much do you think you’ll actually be able to accomplish? Your cousin is older, Princess Soyeon will have already taken most of the company by the time you graduate, there won’t be anything left for you.”

Your jaw clenched at his assumption. Not only did he doubt your own skills, but he talked as if he knew yours and your cousin’s plans better than you did. Your cousin would never do something like that. And to make it worse, your grandfather didn’t come to your defense. He was _nodding along_ as CEO Kim spoke. The food you had just swallowed threatened to rise back up, or maybe it was the strings of curses you wanted to throw back to him. Either way, you needed to calm yourself down, which you couldn’t do with Lady Shin cooing over you again, agreeing with CEO Kim.

Steeling your nerves, you gave him an appreciative smile. “Thank you for the wise advice, Lord Kim. I will make sure to have a second plan for myself. If you all will excuse me for a moment, I need to freshen up.”

At your thanks, CEO Kim looked even more smug, and you found yourself pushing your chair back more forcefully than you had wanted. It squealed against the tile floor, and you realized then that you hadn’t put your heels back on from when you had slipped them off under the tablecloth. But it was too late now, and you quietly padded out of the room with your bare feet. The cold tile immediately seeped into your toes, and you turned away from the path to the bathrooms towards a set of doors where you had spotted a balcony earlier. You had barely turned when a hand suddenly grabbed your arm.

Whipping around, you saw that it was your grandfather, and he was fuming. “What do you think you are doing? If you can’t handle one _truthful_ comment I don’t know how you expect to ever succeed in my company.”

“I’m- I’m sorry, Grandfather. I just needed a breath of fresh air.” You apologized fervently, shifting your weight nervously from leg to leg as he still held tight to your upper arm.

“Take it, then go to the car and wait for me. I cannot have you go back in there and make even more of a fool of me.”

“Yes, sir.”

He finally released you, adjusted his suit jacket, then gave you a final glare before retreating back towards the dinner room. A shuddering breath wormed its way out of you as you were left alone in the hallway. Well, he had told you to get a breath of air. Treading further down the hallways, you opened up the doors, stepping onto the balcony. The air was cool, exciting goosebumps along your exposed skin that were countered by a warm breeze that blew across you occasionally as you sat on the cushioned bench that furnished the area.

You thought about what your grandfather had said, chewing on the inside of your lip. Maybe you really couldn’t be successful in this business, getting angrily flustered at the slightest offense. Usually Soyeon was with you to return the conversation back to a comfortable place for everybody, but your grandfather didn’t have your back like she did. And you didn’t want her to always have your back, you were supposed to be your own businesswoman, your own identity in your career, not a side effect of your cousin. Perhaps you really should just quit while you were ahead, focus on your languages instead. Being a translator could be extremely profitable, depending on where you worked.

But even as you tried to imagine your future life as a translator, teaching, or working abroad, or for powerful business leaders, you still found yourself longing to _be_ the powerful business leader, not just assist one.

There was a knock on the open door behind you, startling you again. Thinking that it was your grandfather again, here to reprimand you for not being out at the car yet, you immediately stood at attention, an apology already forming on your lips. Instead, it was the tall, handsome, and familiar Wong Yukhei, an apologetic smile on his face. In one hand were your heels that you had left under the table in your haste to leave the room as well as your small purse that had been next to your chair, and the other had two styrofoam to-go cups with bright red straws.

“You found me alone. Again.” You commented, no sense of accusation in your voice, just half-hearted humor.

“I did, didn’t I? Here you go, Princess Y/N.” He held out the shoes and purse to you first, and you took them in your own hand before setting them on the ground beside the bench.

“Thank you, Yukhei.” You replied quietly, hand subconsciously rubbing at the spot on your upper arm where your grandfather had grabbed you. It didn’t hurt or anything, but you were still thinking about what he had said.

“Are you cold?” Yukhei immediately started shrugging off his suit jacket, but you waved off his kindness.

“No, no, I’m okay. Thank you, though.”

He offered out one of the to-go cups to you. “Cherry cola. Diet, this time. I figured it was too late for that much sugar.”

Accepting it, you gestured your head to the bench. “Got it. Will you actually sit with me this time?”

“Sure.”

The two of you sat beside each other in silence, arms touching as you watched the very last hints of a sunset, sipping your diet cherry cola up through the cherry red straws. You let the carbonation dance across your tongue before you swallowed, focusing on the feeling and taste to try to ignore the self-deprecating thoughts threatening to take you over. There was no music playing, but you found yourself swaying minutely to some kind of peaceful melody.

Your phone going off obnoxiously loud broke your focus on the scenery, and you leaned over to excavate it from your purse. It was a phone call from Minho, which you answered eagerly, “Hey, Min!”

“Hey, Y/N!” Your friend replied cheerily. “How are you?”

“Ah, pretty okay.” You looked over at Yukhei, his eyes trained on the cityscape, the remaining sun rays making it appear as if he was glowing from within. “What’s up?”

“I feel really bad, but I can’t make it to your birthday party. My stepfather is insisting that I go to his great aunt’s cousin’s funeral or some dumb shit like that.”

“A funeral is not ‘some dumb shit,’ Min.” You sighed, getting your companion’s attention to snap to you as he looked on, bewildered.

“It _is_ when neither I nor my stepfather has ever met this dude before in our lives. And now he’s dead, so we never will.”

“Anyway, I understand. I would say have fun, but you would take my advice literally and ruin the funeral for the people actually mourning. So, like, I don’t know, pretend it’s my funeral or something.”

You could practically hear the shit-eating grin in his voice, “Oh, so bring party poppers and stuff?”

“ _Don’t._ ”

“I’m kidding. Sorry, I’ll bring you a real cool souvenir as a present.”

“You don’t get souvenirs at funerals what the _fuck_ are you _on_ , Lee Minho?” You exclaimed, rubbing at your temples. Sometimes your friend’s dark sense of humor caught you off-guard, like now.

“I’m kidding again, Y/N. Don’t worry, I’ll be perfectly princely and respectful.”

“ _Sure._ ”

“Sorry again, bye!”

“Bye.” With that, you hung up, shaking your head at your friend. “That boy is going to make me go grey one day, I swear.”

Yukhei’s eyes were still wide as he seemed to be processing your conversation. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

There was a beat, and with the topic of your birthday party now on your mind, you spoke again, “Are you busy the Friday after next, at around six-thirty pm?”

“Uh, not that I can think of.”

“You should come to my birthday party.”

“Really? Who else is going to be there?”

You closed your eyes as you tried to compile a mental list. “Ah, not Lee Minho anymore. So that leaves Ki Heehyun, Ha Sooyoung, Chae Hyungwon, Dong Sicheng, and Lee Taeyong. Oh, and my cousin Jungkook might make an appearance if he gets back from LA in time.”

“I don’t think I’m familiar with any of those other names.” A confused frown spread across Yukhei’s face. “Is Lee Taeyong of the same lineage as Minho and Mark, or COO Lee?”

“Nope.” You answered proudly, only making the poor boy even more scrambled.

“Well then—”

“They’re my classmates, Yukhei. None of them are of royal blood or have any kind of ties to the fuckery that is the business world. And they’re absolutely _wonderful._ ”

He seemed dumbfounded, “You’re friends with—”

“Of course! Aren’t you? Or are you super pretentious and I’m going to regret inviting you?” You narrowed your eyes, and Yukhei immediately went to backtrack.

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that! I was just… surprised.”

“Good. Because they’re great, I think you’ll find that non-royal people are so much better than any bloodline-obsessed bitch with a stick up their ass.” Bending over, you started securing your heels to your feet again. Your grandfather would not be pleased if he heard about you walking barefoot through the restaurant. “I’ve got to get to the car before my grandfather. Thanks again, for hanging out with me.”

“It’s not a problem. I had no reason to stay in there, it’s not like anybody was actually talking to me or my father.”

You scowled, knowing that your grandfather was part of the clique ignoring the Wongs. “I’m sorry. Neither of you deserve to be treated like that, especially for no reason.”

Yukhei nodded, an indecipherable look across his face. “It’s alright, Princess Y/N, it’s not your fault.”

“You really need to stop calling me Princess. Especially around my normal friends, they’ll never let me hear the end of it.” Standing up, you winced at the familiar pain in the extremities of your feet radiating through your arch.

“Okay.”

“Call me Y/N.”

“Will do.”

“No, I mean right now. I want you to say ‘Goodbye, Y/N.’”

He pursed his lips before he obliged, face contorting as if you were making him curse out his sweet old grandmother rather than just call you by your first name. “Goodbye, Y/N.”

A grin spread across your face as you walked towards the still-open balcony doors. “See you later, Yukhei! I’ll send you the details for my birthday, okay?”

“You don’t have my number.”

“I can get it from your father’s assistant or something, right? Is that okay with you?”

“Uh, sure, sure.”

“Alright! Bye, again.”

“Goodbye, again.” He had a small smile on his face as he watched you leave with an extra skip in your step now.

* * *

The car ride after the dinner was silent. Not even Gyeomjin attempted conversation with either of you, clearly feeling the tension in the air. Your grandfather was taken home first, allowing you to finally breathe once he was out of the car.

“How was the dinner, Ms. Y/N?” Gyeomjin asked now that you two were alone, and you sunk further back into the seat.

Taking a melancholy sip of the last of your cherry cola, you thought for a moment. “Terrible, terrible, pretty good, then terrible again.”

“What made it pretty good, then?”

“When I got to leave.”


	3. [three]

Sitting at your desk beside Heehyun in your business lecture hall, you let out a groan of relief. After your dinner with your grandfather the night before, you then had to watch your little brother while your dad went to pick your mom up from the airport. Her flight was delayed, then there was traffic coming home, making it a total of five hours that you had to stay up with Inguk, who wanted to run around the house the entire time. So, to say that you were tired would be an understatement.

“You sound terrible.” She commented, adjusting your skewed hoodie strings.

“You _look_ terrible.” Another voice added as someone sat beside you, and you glared up at the grinning figure of Taeyong.

“Be nice, Yong!” Heehyun chastised your other friend as he took his own seat beside you.

You thwacked him on the chest, earning a small ‘oof’ from him.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

“You try having the worst business dinner of your life then have to watch your hyperactive two-year-old brother for five hours alone while you’re trying to get your homework done, and also harassing someone’s secretary for information.” You snapped before laying your head down in your arms. “Tell me when Professor Kim says something interesting.”

Heehyun’s voice betrayed the frown the you could imagine across her face, “Do you want to go home, Y/N? I can send you a recording of the lecture.”

“Home means phone calls from the same two ‘suitors,’ so I’d rather try to sleep here.”

“Can’t you just tell them you have a boyfriend or something, to get them to lay off?” Taeyong suggested, pushing something warm against your arm.

Blinking your eyes open and looking over, you saw that it was his cup of coffee that he had walked in with, and you gladly sat up to take a sip. “Can’t do anything that’ll tarnish Grandfather’s reputation.”

“Who cares about him?”

“Everybody.”

“Can’t your parents tell them to go away, then?”

You mused this over as you took another sip of the caramel latte, “Lee Jooheon is the nephew of my grandfather’s biggest business partner, and _The Second Great Lord Lee_ is very much concerned with honor, nobility, and bloodlines. So, a ‘disrespect’ to Jooheon would be a disrespect to him. Not to mention the fact that my grandfather isn’t subtle about wanting me to marry him.”

Your friends’ noses wrinkled up when you had said his full title, which he insisted on constantly being called, and you continued on, “And then Kim Taehyung is a little more manageable, because he’s part of the Bangtan Group with Jungkook. But I still don’t want to upset him, Jungkook has a hard enough time with our grandfather practically disowning him. It’s easy to keep Taehyung at bay, thankfully. But Jooheon will unfortunately show up uninvited and unannounced.”

Heehyun patted your arm comfortingly, “Get engaged to some other prince, then all your problems will be solved.”

A guttural groan came from your throat at her joke, “ _The First Great Lady Lee_ was trying to set me up with some of Jooheon’s cousins last night, Donghae and Seungyeon. Do you _know_ how old Lee Donghae is?”

“Ooh, ooh, let me guess.” Taeyong piped up excitedly. “Thirty!”

“No way!” Heehyun countered. “I’ve seen pictures, he can’t be older than 25!”

“Thirty-two.” You deadpanned, earning gagging noises from both of them.

“Gross.”

“I know.”

“But you’re going to get a break from all that next week!”

“Yeah, for the most part.”

“What does that— oh yeah, Minho’s coming, right?” Taeyong seemed to remember as another figure sleepily stumbling in caught your eye.

Hyungwon rubbed his face, exhaustion clear on his face as he took his seat next to Taeyong. “I want to die.”

“You’ll have to wait in line, Y/N’s up to the guillotine first today.” Yong took the cup of coffee from you to pass it to Hyungwon.

“What’s going on with our little princess today?” Hyungwon put his cheek in his hand before taking a long sip, still blinking sleep from his eyes.

“Piss off.”

His eyebrows shot up as he chuckled, stretching in his seat. “Fair enough.”

“Anyway, Minho isn’t coming to my birthday.”

“Oh, so it’ll just be us, Sicheng, and Sooyoung?”

“No, I invited this other guy, Yukhei. His dad is a Hong Kong CFO.”

All of your friends were suddenly at attention, Heehyun exclaiming, “What company?”

“NCTech apparently opened up a Chinese branch some time ago.” You informed them, Hyungwon still whooping.

“A prince! How exciting!” He grinned, finishing off the coffee.

You rolled your eyes, reaching over Taeyong’s laptop to flick your other friend’s head. “You guys don’t treat Minho weird, so please don’t treat Yukhei weird either.”

“Why would we do that?”

“Because you’re weird.”

* * *

The doorbell ringing distracted you from the horrible pictures you were taking of Hyungwon, who was asleep on your couch with drool all over his chin and making a puddle on the button-up shirt he had worn to look more presentable. Standing up, you adjusted your pants and shirt before dashing to the door. Through the etched glass, you could make out a tall brunette man that was definitely Wong Yukhei.

“You’re late.” You declared as soon as you had swung open the door, clearly catching him off-guard.

He immediately went to stammer out an apology, shifting the gift bag he had from hand to hand, “I’m sorry, I thought that you had said it started at 6:30, it’s 6:05 right now—”

“I’m just kidding, Yukhei. Come in.” You giggled, opening the door wider to allow him to walk in.

Thankfully he’d remembered your warning about not wearing any kind of suit or gala wear, he’d shown up in a simple pair of black slacks and a light blue button-up shirt with the top two buttons open and the sleeves rolled up. The countless times you’d seen him in a princely outfit didn’t prepare you for how breathtaking he was just in business casual. And he seemed to be taking a moment to process your outfit as well, which was quite the opposite of the lavish suits and gowns you always wore when you were on princess duty.

As you walked further into your house, you kept talking, “You’re not late at all, you’re actually the first person here, not counting Hyungwon. And I’m not counting Hyungwon because he’s currently passed out on my couch.” You gestured to the couch in your living room that you had been approaching, where the figure of Chae Hyungwon was still sprawled out across it.

“Is he—”

“Dead?” You took two fingers to your friend’s jugular. “No. He was over studying for our test on Monday, but apparently had one too many cups of coffee at 3 in the morning and crashed almost as soon as he got here. So like, two hours ago.”

“Oh…” Yukhei kept looking between you and your friend, and you changed directions.

“Anyway, here, I didn’t realize you were going to bring a present, I’m going to put it under my bed.” You held out your hands to accept the bag from him, starting towards the hallway where your bedroom was located.

“What?” He followed you, seeming even more confused. “It’s a birthday party, why wouldn’t I bring a present?”

You kneeled down to push the gift bag under your bed. “It’s really sweet, but my friends are all starving college students, so I just told them to bring a food for all of us to share, no presents. Forgot to give you the memo, sorry.”

“I still have time, I could go out and get something—”

“Yukhei, it’s fine.” You reassured him, grabbing his arm to bring him back out of your bedroom. “Now, would you mind helping me put some decorations up? Hyungwon was supposed to help, but this works out better anyway, you’re taller.”

As Yukhei stood on his tiptoes to hang up strings of stars to a height you deemed acceptable, he asked, “So what classes do you share with your friends?”

“Heehyun, Taeyong, and Hyungwon are in my business classes.” You handed him a piece of tape. “Heehyun wants to start her own beauty company, Taeyong is looking to become a COO, and Hyungwon is just trying his best.”

The two of you scooted over to hang the next one, and you kept talking, “Sicheng is Taeyong’s roommate and he’s in my Japanese class. He’s looking to be a Mandarin teacher in Japan and is going to a university in Seoul for some reason that makes sense to him. I’ve tried to understand to no avail.”

Yukhei accepted another piece of tape from you.

“And then Sooyoung is in my English class, Heehyun’s Chemistry class as well as being her roommate, and she’s also in Hyungwon’s Public Speaking class. I’m still not sure what she’s majoring in, and honestly, she isn’t either.”

He settled back down onto flat feet with an amused smile at your comment. “They do sound pretty interesting.”

“What about you, Yukhei? You’re in college, right?”

“Ah… technically, yes.”

“Practically…?”

“No. Not really. I just attend class when there’s a scheduled test, since we have to turn in our assignments online anyway.”

“What are you majoring in?”

“Computer stuff.” Yukhei rubbed at the back of his neck, seeming uncomfortable talking about his education.

“How specific.” You rolled your eyes, stuffing another decoration in his hands.

He watched as you pulled a chair from your kitchen out to the middle of the living room, “Sorry, Y/N. It’s uh, programming and coding, for the most part.”

“Oh yeah, Yoon Sanha’s in your programming class.”

Yukhei still couldn’t reach the vaulted ceiling of your living room, tiptoeing to try to reach it, “Really? I’m apparently blind.”

“Apparently.” You took in the precarious position the prince was in. “How about we just leave that decoration down?”

“It’s fine, I can get it.”

“No, you can’t. Get down before you hurt yourself.”

“I told you, I can get it, I’m almost there.”

The doorbell rang again just then, startling the boy, but he regained his balance. You nervously started backing out of the room, eyes still trained on Yukhei. “I’m going to get the door, please don’t break your neck while I’m gone.”

Turning away from the living room, you ran to get the door. Standing on the other side of it were Heehyun and Sooyoung, both giving you bright smiles and tight hugs. “Happy Birthday!”

“Hello, hello! I wish we could do more squealing at the door, but I’ve got an already-passed out Hyungwon and an overconfident handyman Yu—”

It was then that you heard a ‘woah!’ accompanied by a _thunk_ that made your stomach drop. “Oh, shit!” You groaned, sprinting back into the living room.

Sure enough, Yukhei was attempting to stand himself back up from where he was sprawled out on the floor. “Ah! Stay down!” You warned, walking over towards him. He looked up at you sheepishly as you shook your head. “Break anything?”

“No.”

“Sprain anything?”

“No.”

“Get concussed and finally lose your last two brain cells?”

He laughed lightly, accepting your hand to sit up. “No, no, they’re still hanging on.”

“Surprisingly.” You snorted, eyes catching on movement coming from the couch.

Hyungwon rolled over, rubbing at his eyes with a yawn. “Something happen?”

“Yeah, Y/N’s birthday party is starting—” Heehyun walked over towards the man on the couch, grabbing him by the ear to get him to stand up. “Which means that you need to wake up!”

“I’m awake, mom! I’m awake!” He yelped, swatting at her arm, breathing out a sigh of relief once she let go. He seemed to have finally noticed the fallen Yukhei, blinking several times. “When did he get here and why does he looked more fucked up than I do?”

“Nobody can look more fucked up than you, Hyungwon.”

“You’re really fucking rude sometimes, Heehyun.”

“Yep.”

“And that’s why we’re friends, you agree with me when I call you a bitch.”

“Only because you let me call you a lazy asshole.”

“Anyway,” Hyungwon pointed back down to Yukhei. “Who?”

“Wong Yukhei.” He introduced himself, standing up with a wince. “I got here about twenty minutes ago, and I just fell off a chair.”

“Why?”

“Well I didn’t do it on purpose.”

You frowned when you saw Yukhei clutching his side. “Did you hurt something?”

“No.” He immediately retracted his hand, attempting to look cool.

With two fingers, you poked that same area, earning a cry from him.

“Just a little bruise.”

“Yukhei, I cannot send you back to your dad with a giant bruise on your side.” You groaned, pushing him towards the couch. “Lay down, I’ll get you some ice. You fucking idiot.”

You took the food that Heehyun and Sooyoung had brought and left without even checking to see if he did lay down, shuffling into the kitchen. Grabbing an icepack and a hand towel, you started back towards the living room, not expecting to hear a hushed conversation. Stopping, you felt only a little bad for eavesdropping until you heard your name.

“Don’t worry, Y/N only calls people idiots when she cares about them. And they’re being fucking idiots.” Heehyun sounded like she was assuring Yukhei about your last comment.

“Seriously, Yukhei, I don’t know you at all whatsoever,” Hyungwon added, “But Y/N hates almost every ‘prince’ she’s forced to interact with except Minho. So if she invited you, then you’re pretty cool in her book.”

The fact that your friends were already being so nice to him brought a smile to your face, and you carried that on as you reentered the room. To your delight, Yukhei had listened to you, half-sitting and half-laying on your couch. Treading over to him, you held out the wrapped icepack. “Keep it on until it gets room temperature, okay?”

“Will do.” He nodded, taking it gratefully.

Your doorbell rang again, and you jogged back over to open it. Taeyong immediately tackled you in a hug, forcing you to stumble back. “Happy Birthday, Y/N!”

“Thank you, Yong!” You hugged him back, looking at your other friend over his shoulder as he closed the door behind the three of you. “Hi, Sicheng!”

“Happy Birthday, Y/N.” He gave you another hug with one arm, the other hand holding a bowl that he then offered out to you.

Taking that and the food Taeyong had brought, you gestured them towards the living room as you went to join the food with the rest. You opened your fridge to start getting drinks out, thankful to hear some conversation from the living room as introductions were going around. Taking some paper plates out from your pantry, you laid out utensils as well before poking your head back into the living room. Taeyong was in the middle of saying something, and you cocked your head as you listened.

“I thought she was an absolute bitch when I met her.” He giggled, scratching at the back of his head.

“What do you mean? Y/N’s like the sweetest thing ever!” Heehyun went to defend you. “ _I’m_ the bitch in this friend group!”

“I clarified that was when I met her _two years ago_ , I know she’s not a bitch now.”

“Aw thanks, Yong.” You finally said something, leaning in the doorway with a bright smile. “Anyway, drinks are ready, and I have plates and such out if you all want to eat now.”

Hyungwon and Heehyun immediately went to run into the kitchen, and you stood over Yukhei as he tried to get up, arms crossed. “No, you’re staying there. I’ve got cherry cola; do you want some?”

“I can get my own drink, Y/N.” He sighed, swinging his legs over to sit up completely.

“You also said that you could hang the decorations.” You retorted, earning an exasperated smile from him.

“Alright, fine. Yes, I’ll have some cherry cola.”

Your face broke out into a grin, “I’ll be right back!”

Sicheng was still in the room, the rest of your friends helping themselves in the kitchen, and you patted his arm as you walked by. Dragging the chair in the middle of the living room back into your kitchen, you saw that your mom had come out, saying hi to everyone. She was always well-liked by your friends whenever she was around, which wasn’t that frequently because of her business schedule. But she made sure to be here for your birthday. Grabbing two cups, you filled one with cherry cola and your own just with water as you bumped Sooyoung’s hip with your own to scoot her over a little bit.

She giggled, bumping you back. “So, how does it feel being old?”

“Do you realize that you’re older than me?” You replied.

“Unimportant, you’re old now.”

“Welcome to the club.” Taeyong grinned as he loaded up rice onto two plates.

“Oh please,” Your mom rolled her eyes. “You all have no right to be talking about being old!”

“I mean… you look great for twenty-six, Ms. Y/L/N.” Hyungwon added, and you looked at him incredulously.

“If she’s twenty-six then how am I alive?”

“…Fuck.”

Your mother laughed, taking her own glass of water, “You all have fun.”

“Bye, Ms. Y/L/N!” Your friends said in unison as she left the room.

After you’d gotten your own plate filled, you precariously carried that and the two cups back to the living room. As you walked in, you could hear Yukhei and Sicheng talking to each other in Cantonese, each reminiscing about their hometowns. When you had entered, Yukhei immediately stopped talking, perking up at the sight of food. With a fond smile on your face, you handed Yukhei’s cup to him before sitting yourself on the ground in front of the couch and listening to Sicheng describe Wenzhou. Despite knowing Cantonese yourself, you were quite content with just listening to your friends speak in it, always preferring native speaker’s dialect to your own. No matter how long you studied the language, there was always that authenticity you knew you could never have.

It was then that Taeyong and Heehyun reentered the room, the former giving Sicheng a plate of food and a hair ruffle as he went by. Taeyong took the armchair in the corner as Heehyun settled down onto your other couch in the middle, Sicheng sitting beside her.

Yukhei tapped your shoulder then, and you craned your neck to look at him with an attentive eyebrow raised.

“Do you want to sit on the couch?” He offered the empty space next to him, and you shook your head.

“Nah, I’m good down here—”

Right then, Hyungwon walked in and plopped himself down right next to Yukhei, mouth already full. “How’s your side feeling, Yukhei?”

“Better, not that it felt that bad to begin with.” He poked your head, and you scowled back at him.

“It’s better to just listen to her, she aggressively cares.” Your friend chuckled, poking the other side of your head.

You narrowed your eyes at Hyungwon this time, “Why are you two assaulting my head?”

“What do you mean?” Yukhei asked, poking your head again.

“We’re not doing anything.” Hyungwon poked.

“Nothing at all.” Another poke from Yukhei.

“Seriously.” This time when Hyungwon poked your head, you grabbed his finger, bending it back until he hissed in pain. “Aish! I’m sorry!”

Sooyoung joined you on the floor then, creating a barrier between you and Hyungwon right as you released his finger with an innocent smile. With everyone back in the room, a light conversation erupted between you all. Without thinking twice, you leaned back against the couch comfortably, resting your head against the side of Yukhei’s knee. You could feel his leg tense up momentarily before it relaxed again.

As you talked, you would offer your plate up for Yukhei to take some of your food, which he would take gratefully. At some point, your plate was completely empty, and Yukhei tapped your shoulder again.

“I’ll go get some more,” You offered, moving to stand up but he put a large hand on your shoulder to keep you sitting.

“The icepack is room temperature, I’ll get the food.” He declared, standing, stretching, and taking the empty plate from your hand.

“Fine, I’ll take your seat then.” You mumbled mostly to yourself, climbing up onto the couch and tucking yourself into the corner.

Hyungwon nudged your leg, and you realized that everyone had stopped talking, looking at you. “You’re blushing, Princess.”

Pressing your hands to your face, you could feel the heat coming off of them. “I’m in a sweatshirt and some sweatpants, dumbass.”

“Yeah?”

You stuck your tongue out at him, pressing yourself further into the plush couch. “Anyway, thanks for not being super weird tonight, guys.”

“Oh, there’s still time.” Sooyoung teased, making you roll your eyes. “But seriously, Yukhei’s a pretty cool dude.”

“Really? I think he’s incredibly lame.” You snickered affectionately. “That’s why I thought he’d fit in here.”

Your friends immediately erupted into yells of indignancy about not being lame, only making you laugh harder. Suddenly, there was a small form running into the living room at full speed, launching himself into your lap.

“Inguk!” The exasperated voice of your father came as he jogged into the living room. “Sorry, I was trying to keep him away so you all could be alone but he’s slippery.”

You bounced your brother on your knee, earning a joyous laugh from him. “He’s okay in here, Dad.”

“Are you sure?”

“You always ask that. Yes, I’m sure.”

“Okay, you can give him back whenever he gets annoying.”

“I will.”

With that, your dad left, and Sooyoung immediately started cooing over him from her spot on the floor, tickling his sides. He seemed mostly unamused, but at least put up with it instead of throwing a tantrum like he used to whenever Minho tried to interact with him. Yukhei walked back in, the promised plate of food in his hands, and your brother stilled as he looked up at the tall man, dumbstruck.

“Thanks, Yukhei. This is my brother, Inguk, by the way.” You then stroked your brother’s hair. “Can you say hi to Yukhei, Gukkie?”

“Yuk!” He called out, pointing at the man.

“He likes to give nicknames.”

Yukhei cleared his throat, giving your brother a polite nod. “Nice to meet you, Inguk.”

“Yuk!”

Yukhei took your previous seat on the floor, and your brother immediately scooted forward on your lap in order to reach and grab Yukhei’s hair. “Yuk!”

“Inguk!” You chastised him, grabbing his hands. “Be gentle.”

As Yukhei sat frozen, your brother tried again, this time just kind of holding a lock of the man’s hair in his hand. Which was a step up from yanking on it like he just had.

“Yukhei looks terrified.” Sicheng pointed out with a laugh, and you leaned over and forward to be beside Yukhei’s face.

“Are you okay? I can give him back to my parents.”

“I’m okay, really. I’m just never around kids that much, so I don’t really know what to do.” The boy on the floor admitted as your brother let go of his hair to scoot even closer.

“Well, if you’re okay with it, it looks like Inguk wants to sit on your shoulders. Mind if I put him there?”

“Go— go ahead.”

With a small chuckle to yourself about how nervous he was just around a little boy who wasn’t even three years old, you lifted Inguk by his armpits to gently relocate him onto Yukhei’s tall and broad shoulders. Inguk giggled satisfactorily, grabbing at Yukhei’s cheek this time, “Yuk!”

“Ah, gentle, Gukkie.” You reminded him, and he immediately mumbled out a sorry before resorting to stroking the side of Yukhei’s face. “He likes you.”

“That’s a first.” Hyungwon snorted, clearly disgruntled. “He nearly bit my finger off.”

“Well you pinched his cheek, I think he had a reason to.” Heehyun countered pointedly from where she was seated beside Sicheng.

“That’s what people do to babies!”

“Gukkie clearly didn’t like it.”

“Yeah, _I know_.”

While your friends reminisced about the multitude of times that Inguk had dissed them in his short lifespan, the present Inguk was contently rubbing Yukhei’s forehead and giving him awkward kisses in his hair. Yukhei himself seemed unsure of what to do, just letting your little brother do what he wanted. Inguk suddenly stopped, wiggling around on your friend’s shoulder.

“He wants down, here, I’ll take the food.” You grabbed the food from Yukhei’s hand right as the toddler finally wriggled off Yukhei’s shoulder, face-first.

Thankfully the older boy was quick enough to catch him, making your brother cackle in delight as if it was a game. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome?” Yukhei looked down at him incredulously as Inguk rolled himself out of his hands and onto his lap.

“He’s starting to make some sentences. Ask him a question.” You encouraged Yukhei, and he tilted his head as he clearly thought of a question that a two-year-old could answer.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue!”

“I like blue too! But my favorite is actually purple. Do you like purple?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s your favorite animal?”

“Lion!”

“Ooh, why?”

“They’re really cool!”

You added with humor, “And what sound do lions make?”

Your brother enthusiastically did his best impression of a lion roar, making everyone laugh. Happy with the attention, he did it again. As time went on and Inguk gradually became more subdued you were happy to see that Yukhei was becoming a little more comfortable around him too. Just as you let out your own yawn a little while later, Yukhei—who had migrated up onto the couch beside you—turned to you. In his large hands was the softly snoring figure of your baby brother. The man looked almost panicked, unsure of what to do with the sleeping baby.

“Here, I’ll go put him down.” You whispered, gently transferring him from Yukhei’s arms to your own.

* * *

After having to rock him back to sleep for a couple minutes in his room, you whispered a quiet goodnight to him, then tiptoed out of his room towards the living room. Taeyong and Sicheng were standing, quietly collecting their things.

“We need to get going, Winnie and TY need to be fed.” Taeyong explained, and their cats’ names brought a small smile to your face. Your friends were the only people you knew who would name their cats after themselves.

“Here, I’ll walk you to the door.” You guided them to your front door, stopping to give each of them a hug. “Bye, Yong. Bye, Sicheng. Thank you again for coming.”

“See you Monday.” Sicheng squeezed you briefly before following his roommate out the door.

“Bye, boys!”

Back in the living room, Sooyoung and Heehyun chatted a little more with you before declaring that they too had to go home. After seeing them off at the door, you stood with your hands on your hips in front of Hyungwon. “Are you staying the night again?”

“Nah, I won’t overstay my hospitality at the Y/L/N Castle.” He teased, picking himself up off the couch.

“It’s a mansion, not a castle.” You corrected him sarcastically, giving him a tight hug as well. “Get some rest this weekend, Chae Hyungwon.”

“I’ll try, thanks, Y/N. Happy Birthday again.” He pressed a brotherly kiss to the top of your head before giving Yukhei a wave and showing himself out.

Turning back to Yukhei, you practically collapsed onto the couch next to him, a tired smile on your face as you looked over at him. “Thanks for coming, Yuk.”

His head snapped around when you called him your brother’s nickname for him, his features turning soft once his eyes landed on your face. “Thank you for inviting me, Y/N.”

“I just realized that Jungkook never came.” You commented with a small frown. “His flight must have been delayed, or he really wanted to go to sleep. I wouldn’t blame him, LA always sucks the life out of me after a couple days.”

“I’ve never been, what’s it like?” Yukhei turned his whole body to look at you attentively.

“It’s… busy to say the least. I didn’t get to do much sightseeing on my last couple trips, they were business things with my mom. The food is good, but I couldn’t eat too much of it at a time, it was really heavy. And—”

Your phone’s ringtone picked you up from the couch to grab it off the coffee table. “Ah, speak of the devil.” You grinned, accepting the video call from your cousin. “Kookie!”

“Y/N!” He grinned as his face came into view on your screen. “Happy Birthday! I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the party, I just got on my plane a couple hours ago.”

“That’s okay, thank you for calling!” You sat back down on the couch, happy to see your cousin. “How was LA?”

“Warm. Namjoon even let us go to the beach for a couple hours this time.”

“And how’d the meeting go? If you can disclose anything with me.”

Jungkook chuckled, “It went well, and that’s about all I can say.”

“Good.” Your smile dropped when you suddenly heard your name being called offscreen by a deep voice.

Half of Kim Taehyung’s face poked into frame, his eyes widening when he saw that it was in fact you. “Ah, Y/N! Hello!”

“Hi, Taehyung.” Your grin returned to your face. It wasn’t that you didn’t like Taehyung, he was a great guy, you just didn’t want anything to do with him romantically. “How are you?”

“Great! It’s your birthday, right?”

“It is.”

“Happy Birthday! I wish Jungkook had told me sooner, I could’ve brought something for you.”

You mentally thanked your cousin for not telling Taehyung sooner, wanting as few excuses to see him alone as possible. “That’s okay, a Happy Birthday is enough for me.”

From the other side of the couch, you could see Yukhei awkwardly looking around, clearly unsure of what to do. He made eye contact with you, and you smiled reassuringly, mouthing a ‘sorry.’ He shrugged, telling you that it was okay.

“No, no. It’s not. I’m terribly busy for the next month after I come back, I’ll just send your present to your house.”

Arguing with Taehyung wouldn’t do anything, once he was set on something, he would go through with it. “Okay, well thank you, Taehyung.”

“Of course, Y/N!”

Jungkook then pushed his face out of frame, “Alright, it’s _my_ time to talk to _my_ cousin.”

“Happy Birthday again, bye!”

With Taehyung gone but not quite, Jungkook then put some headphones in so you two could have a little more privacy. “Sorry,” He whispered, and you waved off his apologies.

“It’s okay, Taehyung’s nice.” You reassured him. “But I do actually have to go soon, I still have a guest here from my party.”

“Oh, hi Hyungwon!” Jungkook said loudly into the microphone, and you shook your head as Yukhei’s eyebrow shot up questioningly.

“Not Hyungwon.”

“The other dude in your business class?”

“Not Yong.”

“Minho?”

“Nah.”

“Sooyoung? Heehyun? Sicheng?”

“No, no, and no.”

“Damn, you have other friends?”

“Yeah, I do, Jungkook. Do you have other friends besides the Bangtan Group?”

He scowled at you, “Alright, fine. Who is it?”

You looked to Yukhei, silently asking if it was okay for your cousin to see him. He nodded, and you scooted closer to be able to fit Yukhei’s big face into frame. “This is Wong Yukhei. Yuk, this is my cousin Jungkook.”

Jungkook scrutinized the boy on screen for a moment. “Are you in Y/N’s business class too?”

Yukhei uncomfortably cleared his throat, “No. Uh, I’m actually not in any of her classes.”

“Really? Wait— Y/N!” He suddenly lowered his voice, glancing in the direction of Taehyung as he whispered, “Is this a prince?”

“Yukhei’s dad is the Hong Kong CFO for NCTech, if that’s what you’re asking.” You confirmed, and the man beside you shifted, caught between awkwardness and pride.

“NCTech opened a Hong Kong branch?” Was the only question Jungkook seemed to have, and you held back a laugh. That was the same question you had when you first met Yukhei.

“Yes, it’s not fully fledged out yet, but we’re getting there.” Yukhei explained, rubbing at the back of his neck.

“Okay, well I don’t know about you two, but I’m tired. Goodnight, Happy Birthday again, Y/N. And it was great meeting you, Yukhei.”

“Bye, Jungkook!” You said cheerily as your cousin hung up.

Yukhei audibly sighed in relief, “I’ve never met someone from the Bangtan Group.”

“Well, congrats, you just kind of met two of them. Not really missing out on much.” Standing up, you stretched out your legs before looking back to him. “Do you have a curfew or anything?”

“Ah, no. Just instructions to help clean up and the like.” He stood up too, and you walked to the middle of the living room.

“Alright, but _I’m_ getting these decorations down.” You jumped up with your hand outstretched, just managing to grab the end of the dangly stars to yank it down.

Yukhei smiled, moving to get some of the others around the room.

“I’ve been wondering,” You said to him over your shoulder as you went to get another decoration. “Where do you and your dad live, exactly? He’s a CFO in Hong Kong, right? So, it’d make sense to live in Hong Kong. Do you all fly over here for every single event or something?”

“Well I live near my university, my father and mother stayed back in Hong Kong. My father flies out for the important stuff, yes.”

“Right, I forgot that you go to college here.”

“Well…”

“That you technically attend a college here.” You corrected yourself, stacking the stars on the couch closest to you. “Do you go back home between school years?”

“I did last year, but I’m thinking about sticking around after this semester.”

“That’d be fun! Even if you don’t, you should for sure visit for a beach day, my friends really liked you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, thanks.” Yukhei seemed to be contemplating something as there was a lull in your conversation. He finally spoke up, “I don’t mean to pry… Well actually, that’s exactly what I’m doing. But, Hyungwon…”

“What about him?” You questioned, having a good idea of what he was about to ask you.

“He’s…”

“Been my best friend since childhood. Always felt like a brother, and always will.”

“That’s nice.”

“Why were you asking?”

“Just curious. And you did reject Kim Taehyung?”

“Tae’s… not my type, I guess you could say? Nice boy, but I’ve just never been interested in him.”

“Ah.”

“Why were you asking?”

“Well… who wouldn’t be interested in the relationship status of the One True Princess?”

“Oh God.” Rolling your eyes, you had effectively stopped the conversation as you went back to work undecorating the room.

After all the decorations in the living room had been gathered, and the few leftovers were packaged into your fridge, you suddenly remembered the bag under your bed. “Oh! The present! Do you want me to open it now or later?”

“You can open it now.” He said eagerly, following you to your room.

Sitting sideways on your bed with the bag in your hands, you waited for Yukhei to sit across from you before removing the tissue paper. Inside was a small box that contained a simple silver bracelet. It was really just a hoop of silver, nothing exceptionally special about it. But that’s why you loved it.

“I-I figured that you didn’t want something too fancy, or royal, so—”

“It’s beautiful.” You grinned, closing the lid. “Thank you, Yukhei.”

He nodded, his own bashful smile crossing his lips. “You’re welcome.”

It was then that you saw the time again and remembered that you had an early flight for a quick weekend business trip with your mother. So reluctantly, you spoke up again, “I really don’t want to throw you out, but I’ve got a six a.m. flight, so I kind of have to.”

“I understand.” Yukhei stood up, letting you start leading the way to the front door. “So where are you going?”

“Short weekend business trip with my mother. To Hong Kong, actually.” You informed him, to which he smiled.

“Have fun, it’s a wonderful place.”

“I will, thank you.”

Opening the door, Yukhei seemed unsure of whether or not he should bow, so you just went and hugged him. “Bye, Yuk.”

One of his arms found its way around you, hugging you back. “Bye, Y/N.”

Letting go, you gave a final wave to him before closing your door to his retreating figure. Once you had gotten yourself back in your bedroom, you laid down on your bed, a satisfied smile on your features as you delicately spun the metal bracelet Yukhei gave you around in your hands.


	4. [four]

Your heels had come off in record time, only forty-five minutes into the ball. Probably because of the line of people waiting to ask to dance with you. Which only made sense, this was your birthday ball and you were the One True Princess, _of course_ every eligible bachelor or just Lord that wanted to make a good impression on you _had_ to dance with you. Excusing yourself from the arms of Lord Shin, you found a secluded table to discretely unstrap your heels and tuck underneath. You glanced at the name tag of whose seat this was, smirking to yourself when it was a familiar name.

“Okay I don’t think this is my fault this time for me finding you alone.” Yukhei said pointedly, and you looked up at him happily.

“My bad.” You grinned, gesturing for him to take the seat beside yours, the namecard at that place for his father. “So, welcome to my least favorite part of my birthday, the inevitable birthday ball that somebody that is never my parents throws me.”

“Really?”

“Yep, I never get a say in anything, it’s typically meant to be a surprise party, since I would shoot down any kind of idea for something like this.”

“Well, it’s a nice ball.”

“Yeah, shockingly this year my Grandfather is hosting it, which is why I’m surprised that you and your father got an invite.”

“It was a somewhat unofficial one, your father had called my father and passed along the details.”

“You all got place settings and engraved namecards, that’s pretty official.”

“Yeah. How come your parents don’t throw you the ball?”

“They know I hate it, so someone else takes over. Last year it was my aunt, and the year before that it was CEO Jung, I believe? That was when he was trying set up Yoonoh as a suitor. Thank God he gave up pretty quickly on that.”

“Oh?” Yukhei’s brows furrowed, and you patted his arm.

“You want to know the worst thing about the ball this year?”

“Hm?”

“There’s no cherry cola.”

He chuckled, his features becoming relaxed again, “The horror.”

You felt yourself relaxing again too, hands absentmindedly running against the silky fabric of your dress. You’d thankfully managed to avoid a big poofy ballgown for the night, which made it easier for you to walk and sit and function like a normal human being. The dress was a simple shape and deep maroon color that you felt matched your complexion well. And even if it didn’t, it was a beautiful dress, so you didn’t care.

“Have you had fun once tonight, Y/N?” Yukhei asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over the two of you.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s technically your birthday, you should be having fun.”

“Hard to when everything I hate about being royal is being shoved in my face; suitors, fake smiles, bullshit titles, all of that.”

“Just because it’s a royal function doesn’t mean you have to force yourself not to have fun.” He snorted, standing up from his chair to bow and offer a hand out to you. “At least dance with someone you don’t hate, hm?”

“Why do you think that I don’t hate you?” Eyes flicking between his outstretched hand and the inquisitive look on his face, you rolled your eyes and gave in, placing your hand on top of his.

“That’s why.” With a victorious grin, Yukhei led you back onto the dance floor, where an upbeat melody was playing.

You giggled and laughed your way around with him, thankful that for once your partner wasn’t analyzing your every move for royal properness, or trying to marry you, or get you to marry someone in their lineage, or make a business deal with your parents. Yukhei was dancing with you just because he wanted to. He was there for you, not anything or anyone else. It was truly refreshing.

“Are you having fun yet?” He queried, knowing full well the answer to it, you hadn’t stopped grinning once since you’d started.

“No, I’m really bored.” You wrinkled your nose, prompting Yukhei to pinch your side until a giggle tumbled out of your mouth. “Fine! Fine! I’m having fun. Thank you.”

“Of course. No way should you be sulking at your own birthday party.”

“I was taking a break! I wasn’t sulking—”

“You were sulking.”

“No, I wasn’t!”

“You kind of were.”

It was then that the music changed to a much slower tune, and you started to panic. Not because you’d have to slow dance with Yukhei, but because you’d never actually learned how to slow dance in your life. Sure, your grandmother had paid for some classes when you were little, but your parents never forced you to go to them, so none of the knowledge ever stuck with you from the two that you had actually attended. You immediately tried to pull away, but Yukhei kept a firm enough grip on your hands to encourage you to stop.

“What’s wrong?” His brows were furrowed, clearly concerned more than offended.

“I don’t—” You dropped your voice to a whisper, already starting to feel bystanders’ eyes on you. “I don’t know how to slow dance.”

His eyes widened, and he bit down on his lip to keep from laughing at your confession, “Really? The One True Princess doesn’t know how to slow dance?”

“Well she does know how to throw a punch so keep your voice down!”

Still with a smile on his face he proposed, “Stand on my feet.”

“What? I’m not five years old, that won’t work.”

“I’ve got big shoes, don’t worry.”

“Yukhei—”

“And you’re not wearing your heels, right?”

You nodded.

“So it won’t even hurt me anyway, come on.”

With a sigh, you stepped up onto one foot, then the other as discretely as you could, knowing that some people were watching you. You already felt unbalanced, tempted to hop off. But Yukhei, sensing your wobbliness, wrapped an arm tightly around your back, pressing you flush to him. His other hand gripped yours more gently, keeping you steady as he began to move, you atop his squeaky-clean leather dress shoes. 

He was very warm, as you were now learning, and strong as he was able to stably move you two back and forth at a slow and calming pace. If you tried to tilt your head or arch your back to look at him, you’d probably fall backwards, effectively forcing you to rest your cheek against his chest and let him move you wherever. But was it _actually_ forcing if you wanted to anyway?

Your free hand was resting in the curve where his neck meets his shoulder, and you marveled in the soft silk button-up that was just poking out from under the collar of his suit jacket. Yukhei’s hand that was holding yours bumped the cold metal around your wrist, and he finally noticed the bracelet you were wearing.

“That’s the one I got you.” You could hear the soft smile in his voice as his fingers gently messed with it a little more.

“Yeah, I really like it. Thank you, again.” You replied, eyes trained on your clasped hands.

As he spoke in a hushed tone, his deep voice rumbled through his chest, something you could clearly feel against your cheek. “Of course, I’m happy that you like it.”

Pause.

“Yukhei.”

“Hm?”

Your voice caught in your throat, stopping whatever it was you were about to suddenly spill out. “So uh— how’s school?”

There was a heavy pause as he was clearly expecting you to say something else, but nonetheless he answered pleasantly. “I went to a normal lecture for the first time since the beginning of the year. It was… interesting.”

“Interesting how? Learn anything?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m actually a couple years ahead of the class, because transferring from Hong Kong meant that I lost all my previous credits and had to start over. But nonetheless I did kind of have fun, I sat with Yoon Sanha, actually. He’s… interesting.”

“You sat with Sanha? He’s a nice boy. Like you said, fucking weird, but—”

“I said _interesting_!”

“He’s interesting because he’s fucking weird.” You retorted and could feel him chuckle. “Anyway, I like him, and all the other Aroha Conglomerate boys. They’re a good group.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, I don’t see them enough to be friends with them like I am with Minho.”

“I don’t see _anybody_ enough to be friends with them.”

“You’ve been seeing _me_ plenty. We’re friends.”

“You’ve got me there.”

Before you knew it, the song ended, and you found yourself reluctant to step off Yukhei’s feet. You’d gotten used to the close proximity and warmth encasing you from being so close. He smelled nice, and his low, soft voice so close to your ear was soothing, lulling you into a calm bubble that you never wanted to leave. And Yukhei wasn’t moving away from you either, still swaying the two of you gently as a peppy waltz began playing in the background.

There was a tap on your shoulder, startling you into nearly toppling off Yukhei’s feet. Thankfully, your dance partner was able to hold you up, but you still had to discretely step off to address whoever was requesting your attention. Standing there was the regal and somewhat imposing figure of Lee Jooheon, head tilted slightly as he looked between you and Yukhei inquisitively.

“Hello, Prince Jooheon.” You forced yourself to curtsey, teeth gritted as you did so.

Jooheon was perhaps the most formal and lineage-aware prince, with good reason. After your own, his royal lineage was the most easily confirmed. That paired with his grandmother constantly spouting on about how the One True Princess and the One True Prince should be together made him… persistent, to say the least.

“Princess Y/N.” He bowed, offering a hand out to you. “Care to dance?”

“Of course.” With hesitant legs, you stepped away from Yukhei into Jooheon’s arms.

Giving Yukhei one last apologetic sidelong glance, you allowed the other prince to take you to the middle of the dance floor, the center of everyone’s attention. You were quiet as you danced, a much greater distance between you two than when you danced with Yukhei. Jooheon was almost robotic as he danced, clearly knowing all the steps exactly as you moved together. He was a fine dancer, but he lacked some kind of intimacy with you that made you so much more comfortable dancing with your previous partner.

“The man you were just dancing with, I don’t believe I recognized him.” Jooheon finally spoke, eyes boring into yours.

“Ah, that was Wong Yukhei. His father is the Hong Kong CFO for NCTech.” You explained, unable to look away from his penetrative stare.

“Hong Kong?”

“Yes.”

“So, he’s not…”

“Not what?”

The corner of Jooheon’s lip curled up with disdain, “He’s not like us.”

You were finally able to look away from him, eyes scanning the room for some kind of escape for yourself. Jooheon’s hand brushed the bracelet that you’d been gifted only a few weeks ago. “This is… quite plain.”

“I think it’s beautiful.” You immediately shot back, failing at trying to keep any kind of aggression out of your voice.

His eyes snapped back to you, “Of course. Did you get my present?”

The image of the elegantly crafted and excessively bejeweled necklace he’d gifted you was practically burned into your eyes. As soon as you had tried it on and felt it start hurting your neck from the weight, you’d offered it to Sooyoung. She gratefully accepted it for special occasions, and you were just relieved to be rid of it. Faking graciousness, you replied, “Yes, it was absolutely wonderful, thank you.”

“Why aren’t you wearing it tonight?”

You obviously couldn’t tell him that you’d given it away, and to your _commoner_ friend, so you lightly gave an explanation, “It didn’t match my outfit. And also, my grandfather had requested that I wear this one.”

Gesturing to the simple silver chain with a small opal pendant that you had around your neck, you figured that mentioning your grandfather would legitimize your reason. That seemed to be the only person’s opinion that Jooheon valued when it came to you. Not your own.

He nodded, “I see. How are your studies coming along?”

The one thing that Jooheon had going for him—besides his face and money—was that he seemed genuinely interested and delighted about your educational ambitions. It was the one subject where the both of you could agree and have an easygoing conversation.

“Very well, actually. Finals start in a few weeks, so studying begins next week. My foreign language finals won’t be difficult, nor economics, the only one I’m truly worried about is business. But I have plenty of time to study and review for it.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fantastic, Princess Y/N.” He commented reassuringly before offering, “And if you ever want any help, I’m available whenever you need.”

Catching his obvious attempt to invite himself to spend more time with you, you replied with fake remorse, “My professor organizes study groups for us all the time, and I have several classmates with whom we all help each other. Thank you for the offer, I’ll keep that in mind.”

You saw a familiar figure over Jooheon’s shoulder that for once brought relief to you instead of dread. Locking eyes with Kim Taehyung, you implored him to come over, which he seemed to be planning on doing already.

“Jooheon!” He greeted your dance partner gleefully, slapping him on the shoulder. “Mind if I take our dear Y/N away for a moment? You’ve had an awfully long time with her.”

“Of course, Taehyung.” Jooheon relinquished you to the other man. “Thank you for dancing with me, Princess Y/N. As always, you’re a great partner.”

Before you could even open your mouth to give a rehearsed and falsely pleasant reply, Taehyung was already sweeping you away, throwing a “Bye, Jooheon!” over his shoulder.

Once you were sure that Jooheon wasn’t near you anymore, you gave your new partner a relieved smile. “Hi, Taehyung.”

“Hello, Princess!” He grinned, casually saying your title as if it was just a nickname of sorts, with no importance or nobility attached to it. “Happy Birthday!”

“Thank you. How are you?”

“Lovely now that I’m dancing with you.”

At least with Taehyung you could let yourself snort at his cheesy behavior. “Glad I could improve your mood. I got your present, it’s extremely cute, thank you.”

The gift Taehyung had promised to send to your residence was a giant plush puppy that was twice the size of your little brother. So naturally, you gave it to him, and he absolutely fell in love with it. You’d forgotten to tell Yukhei when you were dancing with him earlier, but Inguk had named it after him, spouting out an elated ‘Yuk!’ every time he interacted with it.

“Just like you.”

You gave him a pointed look, only making his grin grow. “Anyway, I hope you don’t mind that I regifted it to Inguk, he fell in love with it as soon as I had opened it.”

“Do you have pictures of him with it?” Taehyung seemed ecstatic about you regifting it to your brother, and you nodded.

“My phone is back at my chair; do you want to see them?”

“Yes!”

Letting go of Taehyung’s hand, you led the way off the dance floor and over to your own assigned table at the front center of the room. You grabbed your purse that was under your chair, opening the gallery as fast as humanly possible. After finding the pictures, you scrolled through them for Taehyung, and his awe-filled sighs and affectionate squeals brought a smile to your face.

“He’s just the cutest.” He gushed, and you giggled about how obsessed with your brother he was.

“My mother has him here somewhere.” You craned your neck to look around the room, and finally spotted her to the side of the room, talking to Minho’s parents, Inguk held up on her hip. “Ah, there!”

“Oh, I see! And I’m afraid that I still haven’t given a greeting to your mother…”

“Go, Taehyung.” You shooed him away with a small smile, and he appreciatively bowed to you before dashing off into the crowd.

Seeing Minho’s parents reminded you that you hadn’t seen your friend since the beginning of the party, he had been the first person to request a dance with you, keeping you away from the other repulsive lords and princes for as long as he could. You didn’t have to look far for him, you could see him already making his way towards you with Soyeon and waved them over enthusiastically.

“There’s the birthday girl!” Your cousin gave you a tight hug.

“I haven’t seen you for almost two hours!” Minho exclaimed as he too hugged you.

“I think it’s been a little less than that, Min.” You pointed out, eyes still scanning the room. “Have either of you seen Yukhei?”

“Not since you two were dancing, no.” Minho replied.

Soyeon added, “Speaking of which, it looked like you were having a really great time with him.”

“Maybe because I was. What about it?”

“Nothing, it’s just nice to see you actually enjoying yourself at your birthday ball. You always force yourself to be so miserable every year.”

You hummed noncommittally, still searching for the familiar head of chestnut hair. “Remind me, Minho, what’s your relation to Lee Jooheon?”

“Uh, biologically, none. But if you go through the family tree it’s like second cousins once removed or something like that. According to Mark’s dad, they haven’t had connections with those Lees for generations. The only thing tying us together at this point is our surname. Don’t even attend family events with them.”

“Good, your third cousin seven times removed or whatever the fuck, just rubs me the wrong way.”

“Oh me too,” Your cousin agreed with a shiver.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with him.” Your friend frowned thoughtfully.

“Lucky.” You finally gave up your search for Yukhei, he wasn’t anywhere on the dance floor, by his table, or anywhere in the ballroom. “And what about COO Lee and his wife, that lineage? Lee Donghae and Lee Seunghyun?”

“Pretty much the same thing. A little closer, I’ve seen them at… two Christmases and one Chuseok since I came.” He explained, noticing that your eyes were actually focused back on him. “Did you not find him?”

“Hm?”

“Weren’t you looking for Yukhei?”

“Yeah. I don’t know where he went.”

“A mystery.” Soyeon shrugged, grabbing your arm to pull you back to the dance floor in giggles.

For the rest of the night, you didn’t catch a single glimpse of Wong Yukhei or his father. Not during toasts, dinner, dessert, or when you went by every table to give your thanks to the guests. Both his and his father’s chairs were empty, no suit jackets or any sort of indication of intentions of returning. You fought a frown back. When you were finally in the car going home, and you could take the time to access your phone again, you were relieved to see a message from Yukhei.

[yukhei: sorry about pulling a cinderella tonight, my father was feeling ill so i had to take him back to his hotel.]

[you: i completely understand, is he feeling alright?]

[yukhei: he’s asleep, so i’ll give a confident ‘yes’]

[you: i’m glad he’s feeling better]

[yukhei: thank you. how was the rest of the party?]

[you: boring]

Even as you got home and un-royaled yourself, getting into pajamas and saying goodnight to your family, you kept texting with Yukhei. You’d maintained a somewhat steady stream of contact since you’d acquired his number from his dad’s secretary, but you’ve never just had such a long, easy, and normal-feeling conversation with him. It was nice, and when he finally forced a goodnight at an ungodly hour of the morning, you almost immediately fell asleep with a content—maybe even smitten—smile across your lips.


	5. [five]

A buzz from somewhere on your bed startled you from the half-trance you were in as your eyes were locked on one word in your textbook. You desperately searched for exactly where your phone was under all of your notebooks, papers, and books spread out across your bed. Finally securing it in your hands from underneath a worksheet on economic trends by country in Southeast Asia, you blinked sleepily at the screen. Yukhei was calling you, thankfully not a video call, because you could practically feel the crud that had built up on your being from not leaving your bed in almost 40 hours.

Accepting the call and bringing it up to your ear, you muttered out, “Hey, Yuk.”

“Y/N!” His voice greeted you enthusiastically. “Are you home?”

“Yeah, I’ve been studying. Sorry for not replying to your texts earlier.”

“I texted you like twelve hours ago, have you been studying this whole time?” He suddenly turned concerned, and you looked at the time.

“No… longer than that. _But,_ I took a food break at some point today…”

He sighed, “You need a break, Y/N.”

“After I finish this section. It’ll only be like… another hour or so.”

“Nope, you’re taking one right now. Look out your window.”

Your eyes widened as you tripped over your own feet to get to your window. “You did fucking not.”

Opening your blinds, you were fully awake as you saw Yukhei standing on your driveway, phone in one hand and flashlight in the other, waving to you as he stood in front of a motorcycle.

“Wong Yukhei, why the hell are you in my driveway at a quarter past midnight with a flashlight and motorcycle?”

“I figured we could get a head start on that beach day you were talking about.”

You couldn’t help but let out a cynical laugh at how utterly ridiculous and cheesy this was. “Oh my god. Okay, I’ll be down in five.”

“See you soon.” His victorious grin was apparent through your speakers, even if you couldn’t quite see his face.

Hanging up and dropping your phone on your bed, you changed from your comfy ‘study jammies’ to clothes that were still comfortable but more suited for a late-night beach trip. The last step was to turn off the alarm, leave, and reset the alarm from outside your front door as quietly as you could. Which wasn’t incredibly quiet, seeing as every panel in the house would do a 60-second countdown of beeps that echoed through the entire house. You just hoped that your family would stay asleep.

On your driveway, you shook your head as you approached the grinning figure of Yukhei. “You’re ridiculous.”

“If I wasn’t here, what would you be doing right now?”

“Studying. I have exams in two weeks.”

“You can afford a couple hours.”

“Yeah, usually to sleep.”

“I can leave if you really want me to.”

Your glare softened into something of a pout, “Not without me.”

“Then come on!” He clicked his flashlight off, swinging one leg over onto his motorcycle before gesturing for you to get on as well.

Not even questioning the apparent lack of helmets, you tied back what hair you could before joining him. Wrapping your arms around his waist, you waited for him to start up the engine to tighten your grip and rest your temple against his back.

“Hold on tight.” He warned right as he peeled away down the street.

“No shit.” You snorted, not even fazed by the sudden start forward. “Not the first time I’ve been on a bike.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, Soyeon has one.”

It was then that Yukhei took a sharp turn, and you squealed as you felt your butt slide across the leather seat, head snapping up and arms squeezing his waist as you attempted to anchor yourself in place. “What was _that_?”

“I almost missed the turn.”

“Do you know where we’re going?”

“Of course I do!” Scoffed Yukhei in mock offense. “Trust me.”

“Alright.” You sighed, resting your head against his back again.

As you rode, you felt contentment swell in your chest, simply happy to be with Yukhei again. In the few weeks that you hadn’t seen him, you’d been equally focused on schoolwork, business, and avoiding Lee Jooheon—who had become even more persistent since your birthday ball. You knew that it was starting to get out of hand, but outright denying him was a scary prospect, and you didn’t need to deal with that kind of stress on top of your finals and the start of your grandfather’s integration of you into the company. So, you just tried to stay out of your house at school and study groups, or locked in your room as much as possible, never allowing yourself a substantial amount of free time for Jooheon to visit or try to drag you anywhere. Except now, but you could allow yourself it since it was for Yukhei.

You remembered that you had even banned yourself from seeing Minho, since he wasn’t for school at all. So why were you making an exception for Yukhei? With a pensive sigh, you readjusted your head against his back and settled your arms comfortably around him. And you realized just how satisfied you were, pressed against the warmth of Yukhei’s back and cocooned in his familiar scent. You liked Wong Yukhei.

“Hm. Interesting.” You murmured to yourself, sitting with the idea for a moment. Crushes weren’t necessarily a new thing to you, you’d had your fair share of fleeting ones on various people in your life; Park Jimin—a member of the Bangtan Group—when you were twelve, Moon Bin—an Aroha Conglomerate prince that could always make you smile—when you were fifteen, and even one on Taeyong when you first met on your first day of your very first business class lecture. Nothing had ever come of any of them, they would either pass by quickly or you’d force yourself to focus back on advancing your future opportunities. You were just someone who valued friendships much more than possible romantic ventures, which you’d accepted a long time ago.

But as you contemplated what your current friendship with Yukhei consisted of, you found yourself leaning more towards romantic feelings for him rather than just appreciating him as a good friend. And for once, you were okay with that. Really, truly okay with it.

Yukhei’s voice broke into your thoughts with some humor, “What’s interesting?”

“Ah,” You cleared your throat, wracking your brain for some kind of reasonable answer. “This place at night. I don’t usually go out this late.”

“It is, isn’t it?”

Only a few more minutes passed before you’d reached your destination, Yukhei bringing his motorcycle to a stop in the completely abandoned parking lot a few hundred meters from the shoreline. You reluctantly let go of him, standing up to stretch your legs and your back from the hunched position you had been in for the ride. Yukhei rummaged around in the small storage compartment just behind the seat, relinquishing a knapsack from its depths and slinging it over his shoulder.

“What’s in there?” You asked, linking your arm with his to start the short trek to the beach.

“You’ll find out.” He nudged your side gently, eliciting a groan from you at his vagueness. “An impatient little princess, you are.”

“In my defense, anybody’s little compared to you, you’re a giant.”

“Fair enough. An impatient _average-sized_ princess, you are.”

“Better.”

The sand flooded your sandals, and you stopped to take them off. There was no residual warmth from the sun that had set several hours ago, leaving the cold to curl in and around your toes. You didn’t mind, stopping when you reached whatever particular destination Yukhei had in mind on the shore. He retrieved a large blanket from his bag, spreading it out as carefully as he could across the sand.

“Got some snacks in there too?” You questioned, seating yourself onto the comfortable surface.

“Of course.” Yukhei proceeded to sit down and bring out several plastic bags of food. “It’s no royal banquet, but—”

“I haven’t had junk food in forever! Bless your soul!” You interrupted him, rifling through the bags until you found your favorite kind of chips and the bottles of cherry cola he’d brought too.

The two of you chewed your food in quiet, and you only let yourself focus on that and the nearly full moon above you. And how the moonlight looked reflecting off the small waves. And how it could perfectly illuminate Yukhei’s features as he inelegantly munched on his own bag of snacks. It was far from a picturesque view, but you smiled to yourself as you thought that you wouldn’t want to be seeing anything else in that moment.

“Yukhei.” You finally spoke up.

“Hm?” He questioned through a mouthful of food, immediately trying to wipe at his mouth.

“Thank you.”

His features relaxed again into a grin after he had fully swallowed his bite. “Of course. Feeling better?”

“Yeah, this is what I needed. I still have dozens of textbook pages burned into the back of my eyelids, but it’s fine.”

“Come here.”

“What?”

Yukhei opened his feet before patting the empty space between his legs. “Sit here, back to me.”

There was a beat as you contemplated what he was planning, but you soon realized that at this point it would be pointless to ask, and obliged. After scooting yourself between his legs, facing the inky black ocean, you let out a small squeak when his large hands were suddenly covering your eyes.

“Ah, it’s fine.” He reassured you, hands hovering just in front of your eyes. “Close your eyes, Y/N.”

You did as he asked, and his hands finally were gently pressed atop your eyes, completely blocking everything from your sight. There was darkness, and the loss of sight only heightened the sound of his light breathing, the warmth radiating from his hands and his body, and your awareness of just how close he was to you again.

“What do you see?”

“Uh, nothing.” You snorted, to which he gave a small sigh. Rolling your eyes despite nobody being able to see that you had, you revised your answer, “Okay, I can still see those fucking textbook pages. ‘It has been said that a contract implied in fact must contain all the elements of an express contract. So, such a contract is dependent on mutual agreement or consent, and on the intention of the parties: and a meeting of the minds is required. A contract implied in fact is to every intent and purpose an agreement between the parties, and it cannot be found to exist unless a contract status is shown. Such a contract—”

“You’ve got that thing memorized?” Yukhei cut you off, surprised.

“I told you they’re burned into the back of my eyelids.”

“Clear your vision, get rid of them. You’re not learning things if you’re just memorizing.”

“I’m not trying to memorize.”

“Well then _not try_ to unmemorize.”

“That didn’t make sense.”

“Get those pages out of your head!”

“I’m trying!” You practically screeched back in frustration.

Then Yukhei was shaking your head side-to-side between his hands, a much firmer grip as he did so, crying out, “Get them out! Get them out of your head! Forget about them!”

You couldn’t help but laugh at his dramatics as you were being shook, grabbing at his arms to get him to stop. “Ah, Yukhei!”

“Tell me about those contracts implied in fact!”

“—such a contract is dependent on mutual agreement or con—”

“Get it out of there!” He shook you more vigorously, only making you cackle even harder, one hand clutching his arm as your other clutched your chest.

“Yukhei!”

“What is the contract dependent on?” He slowed as he asked his next question.

“Mutual ag—”

“Nope!”

Your head was being shook fervently again, and your cheeks were starting to hurt from how much you were grinning. “Yuk!”

“What’s required, Y/N?”

“A meeting of the—nothing!” You squealed as he picked up the pace of the shaking again. “I don’t know! I don’t know! I have no fucking clue!”

Yukhei finally released your head, “There we go!”

You now opened your eyes again, thankful for the darkness of the night for making your vertigo a little less. Blinking your eyes, you turned to look at Yukhei with a small glare, “I think I’m down to two brain cells like you now.”

“Nah, you’ve still got plenty, I’m sure. You need to forget about those damn textbooks for a little bit, okay? You can get it all back in the morning; you’re real smart.”

A couple more blinks happened before you were able to focus back on the smirking face of Yukhei. As he grinned at you victoriously, and you were still a little dizzy from being shaken and laughing so hard, you couldn’t wipe your own smile from your face. Yukhei was weird and crazy, but he really did care about your mental health, in his own peculiar way.

“Alright, well congrats, the textbook pages are gone.”

“Up for a walk?”

“Sure.”

Yukhei immediately launched himself up before offering a hand out to help you up. You accepted, letting him pull you to your feet. As you were stood up, you stopped, hands on your knees as your cochlea tried to readjust again. You were still a little shaky from being shaken, squeezing your eyes shut between short blinks.

“You good?”

“No.” You snorted, taking a couple more moments until you felt stable. “Okay, better.”

“Sorry.” Yukhei said sheepishly, and you attached yourself to his arm, only partially for balance.

“I’m fine. Lead the way.”

He slowly started the two of you down the beach, speaking in low hums and the occasional sudden burst of laughter. The empty beach and lack of any other sounds besides the two of you and the waves made the moment feel surreal. Time felt meaningless, as if this would be never-ending, you could be slow and de-stressed for the rest of your life. Nothing existed outside of the beach, you, Yukhei, and the seemingly random conversations you were having.

During a lull, you requested, “Tell me about Hong Kong.”

“You were just there.”

“For a total of twenty-one hours, and either in my hotel or a business meeting the whole time. Tell me about _your_ Hong Kong.”

“ _My_ Hong Kong’s not anything special. Business district, shopping district, school, home.”

“You were so enthusiastic when you talked to Sicheng about it.”

“Ah, well—”

“I can speak Cantonese, remember?”

“Right. I just—I don’t know. Sicheng did most of the talking about Wenzhou, I had only mentioned that I was from Hong Kong.”

You frowned to yourself, eyes falling to your feet, watching as they left imprints in the fine sand. The two of you were just out of the reach of the gently crashing waves. Tugging on Yukhei’s arm, you pulled him closer to the ocean, halting to feel the water wash over the tops of your feet. He had taken his own shoes off earlier while you were eating, standing beside you in the tide quietly.

Chewing on your bottom lip, you could feel your worries over studying coming back again. It was definitely past one a.m. at this point, you had an 8 a.m. review lecture. You don’t know why you had decided to take an 8 a.m. class, but you had, and now you were regretting it more than you ever had before. Leaning your head against Yukhei’s arm, you let out a shaky and hollow sigh.

Yukhei briefly rested his head atop yours before straightening up again. His free hand reached over to tuck a stray piece of hair behind your ear. “Do you want to go back?”

“No. I don’t want to have to deal with any of that. For a little bit.” Your voice unintentionally cracked, which you tried to cover up with a cough—badly.

“Woah, woah.” Yukhei cooed quietly, turning to bring you into his chest. “I meant to the blanket. We can stay out as long as you need, okay?”

“Thanks.” You sniffled, successfully blinking back your tears before pushing yourself back from him a little bit to reconnect your arms.

Once you’d both sat back down on the blanket, you had a sleepy revelation. “Don’t you have class tomorrow? And exams to study for? Why are you out here with me?”

“Because you need this, and I didn’t sign up for Friday classes.”

“And meanwhile I signed up for an 8 a.m. Friday class.”

“That’s rough.”

“Yeah.”

Pause.

“Yuk.”

“Hm?”

Without a second thought, you started scooting closer to him. “I’m cold.”

“Are you?” He watched you with an eyebrow raised as you repositioned yourself between his legs. “What are you doing?”

“You’re warm.” You explained plainly, leaning back against his chest.

“So you’re going to make me colder?”

“You’re mean.” You scoffed, moving to sit back up, but his arms wrapping around your waist held you there.

“Ah, I’m kidding.” His voice rumbled against your back and he himself readjusted to accommodate you. “Why didn’t you bring a jacket?”

“I didn’t know the beach was this cold at night. You didn’t bring a jacket either.”

“Yeah, but I’m not complaining about being cold.”

“If I wasn’t so tired, I’d fight you.”

“I bet you would.” He agreed, large, warm hands rubbing over your exposed, goosebump-covered arms.

The simple and soothing movement paired with the newfound warmth around you and the sounds of the waves gently crashing on the shoreline only further encouraged your already tired state. Your eyes fluttered shut as you settled even further into Yukhei. With no more pages of textbooks and soundbites of lectures floating around in your head, maybe you could finally get some kind of sleep. But there was still something poking at you, bothering you even more now that you were half-asleep on top of Yukhei, and he hummed something under his breath as his hand graced over the silver bracelet you were still wearing on its way to play with your hands.

“Yukhei.”

“Yes?” He immediately replied, still messing with your fingertips.

“I really like you.”

“Hm?” Yukhei repeated through a choke, immediately dropping your hands.

Sitting up on your own again, you were discouraged at how easily his arms fell from around you. Twisting around, you looked at him for a moment. Were you really that far off?

“Y/N, before I go into panic mode, know that I like you too and this is absolutely not me rejecting you, okay?” Yukhei reassured you, waiting for you to let out a small chuckle before his voice changed pitch and he ran a hand through his hair. “Oh _fuck._ I’m not— are you sure? Not because I’m… of course not, you’re… right.”

You watched him patiently, head tilted as you listened to him ramble on to himself.

“Holy shit. I can’t—”

“You good?”

“Nope, still processing.”

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t like you?”

“Well…”

And you kissed him.

He was looking at you with those big, beautiful brown eyes, lips parted in awe as he looked at you like you were the most wonderful thing he’d ever seen. So really, how could you _not_ kiss him?

It took him a moment to kiss you back, making it even sweeter once he had. Your fingers carded through his hair as you sat back, gently pulling your lips away from his. He immediately pouted, “I wanted to kiss you first.”

“Sorry.” You smirked before both his hands cupped your face, pulling you closer to press your lips together again, much more firmly this time.

You let him take the lead, smiling against his lips as he deepened the kiss. Grabbing at one of his hands, you managed to pry it off in order to lace your fingers through his, perfectly content again. He tilted his head, getting a better angle to start gently moving his mouth on yours, squeezing your hand briefly.

* * *

It was some time later that had you cradled against his chest again, arms holding steadfast around you as you slipped between dozing, eating, kissing, and sleepily talking to Yukhei. Now you were mumbling something about needing to make it to your class the next day when he reminded you that it already was the next day, and that you deserved to miss one class and catch up on some sleep.

“Hm, I guess I do.” You agreed, laying one of your hands over his that were clasped across your stomach.

“I should take you back home, so you can sleep in your own bed.” Yukhei claimed but made no move to follow through. “But I think that you might fall asleep on the bike and fall off and break your neck.”

“Considerate. I’m fine here, unless you really want to get rid of me.”

“No, of course not.” He reassured you, taking one of his hands to brush back some of your hair. “When do you want to go back?”

“Never.”

“You have to eventually.”

“I know, I know. But I just want to pretend that I don’t have school, or my family, or the business, or Lee Jooheon knocking on my door because he can’t take a hint.”

“You’ve gotten to pretend for three hours so far.”

“Not enough.” You grumbled, leaning your head back far enough to just be able to see Yukhei’s face in the moonlight. “You’re pretty.”

His eyebrows shot up, face softening when he looked down at you, and he pressed a tiny kiss to the tip of your nose before saying, “You sound drunk, Y/N.”

“I’m not. I’m just tired.”

“Then go to sleep.”

“One more question.”

“Yes?”

“Any surprise engagements or betrothals or the like?”

“What? No! Y/N, this isn’t the Middle Ages.”

“I just had to make sure, it still happens sometimes. Mark’s aunt and uncle pretty much have him half-betrothed, Jiyong has an arranged marriage.” You explained, satisfied with his answer. “Wake me up for the sunrise, okay?”

“I will.” Yukhei promised, pressing soft kisses into your hair as you finally allowed yourself to succumb to the sleep that had been pulling at you for a good part of the past three hours.

* * *

When you woke up, you couldn’t quite remember whether or not you’d been so tired you’d imagined the whole thing, but the pair of arms still snugly around your abdomen and the shallow, warm breaths tickling the shell of your ear, and the same familiar smell of Yukhei told you that you hadn’t. Squinting your eyes, you’d realized that you had long missed the sunrise, just a few pure white clouds amidst the fully blue sky.

Elbowing Yukhei, you waited for him to come to a little bit, letting you go to sit up behind you. He groaned at the brightness, hiding his face in your shoulder with a small whine.

“You didn’t wake me up for the sunrise.” You teased lightly, earning another tired groan from him.

“My bad.” He grumbled, voice even deeper and thicker with the early hours. The two of you were quiet for a little longer as you peacefully watched the sky and the beach wake up, and Yukhei tried to adjust to the world of the living again.

He sighed and rubbed his eyes after bringing his face out of your shoulder. “I should take you home now.”

“Yeah.” You reluctantly agreed. “My parents won’t like that I didn’t tell them I was going out.”

“That’s it? My dad requests constant updates on my whereabouts, wanting to make sure I’m focused on school and business.” Yukhei slowly stood up, prompting you to do the same and step off the blanket. “At least my mom encourages me to have a social life, but I think that’s because she’s afraid I’m going to die alone.”

“I’ve never met her, does she not come to events?”

“She hates everything about business and the like.”

“Can’t blame her.” You gathered the leftover food and wrappers into their original plastic convenience store bags before Yukhei folded up the blanket to stuff it back in his knapsack, followed by the bags.

Yukhei didn’t even hesitate to take your hand in his to lead the way back to the motorcycle, which was thankfully where you had parked it yesterday. Or, earlier that day. Time is weird.

“Hold on, let me check my phone first.” You mumbled, tugging on his hand to get him to stop, and retrieving your phone with your empty one.

9:58 a.m.

There were plenty of messages from the business majors group chat, which you’d have to read later with more time and a cup of coffee. One in your private messages with Sooyoung, asking why you weren’t in class, which you quickly gave a reply to.

[you: slept through my alarm, let me know if i miss anything important]

There was a single missed call from your father, which you figured you shouldn’t return, wanting to deal with it all once you got home.

“Alright, ready.” You declared, following Yukhei onto his motorcycle again.

Without prompting, you pressed yourself close to him, eyes closing as you nuzzled into his back. “ _Shit_ , you’re cute.” He cursed under his breath right as he started the engine.

The ride back from the beach was more peaceful than the ride there, probably because Yukhei could properly see all the street signs now. He smoothly drove you through the city, knowing the way to your house easily. As he pulled up, a strange car in your driveway faintly registered in the back of your head, but you were so busy thinking about having to leave Yukhei that you didn’t fully process it.

You swung yourself off the bike, Yukhei still straddling it with his wind-mussed hair and bright eyes watching you fix your own hair. Planting a kiss on his lips, you thanked him, “I really needed that. Thanks, Yuk.”

“Anytime. Thanks for going along with my craziness.” He gave you another peck.

“Anytime.” You repeated his word, running your hand through his hair one more time before turning to go towards your front door. “We’re planning our first date later.”

“I was thinking coffee?”

“I’ll be drinking enough of it for finals, something else.”

“Boba?”

“Sure.” You were still walking backwards towards the entrance of your house. “Bye, Yuk.”

“Bye, Y/N.” He waved to you, watching as you finally opened your front door and stepped inside.

Peering through the glass, you watched him idle his way out of your driveway before riding off down the street. Turning around with a still-giddy grin on your face, you practically skipped into your kitchen, fully expecting your family to be waiting for you around the kitchen table. They wouldn’t be upset about where you went, who you were with, or even much of what had transpired out there. You knew that they only cared about knowing when you were leaving the house.

Except, your family was accompanied by someone who you _knew_ would care about all of that, very much. You skidded to a stop, smile dropping from your face as you locked eyes with Lee Jooheon. And now the car in your driveway finally made an appearance in the foreground of your brain. That was definitely Jooheon’s car.

“Oh, good morning.” You smacked on a false smile, curtseying slightly. Addressing your parents, you immediately explained, “I’m sorry for not telling you I was going out, it was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing. I promise it won’t happen again.”

“Ah, you’re an adult now, Y/N. Just a note will be fine.” Your father reassured you, gesturing to the open seat between him and Jooheon.

You sat down, smoothing out your pants and rubbing your feet together to get the last of the sand off them. Inguk was in his high chair beside your mom, who was desperately trying to feed him. But he seemed to have no interest in letting go of his stuffed dog to allow her to do so.

“Fine, starve.” She scoffed, setting it down on the table out of his reach.

Inguk was perfectly content with doing so, still holding ‘Yuk’ tightly around the neck. Reaching over the table, you poked your brother’s cheek affectionately before sitting yourself down. Jooheon spoke up again, sliding a plate of toast and eggs over to you.

“Eat, you must be hungry.” He said as he handed you a fork as well.

You really didn’t want to tell him that you had no appetite because you’d eaten a bunch of junk food between making out with Wong Yukhei on a beach just a few hours prior, so you reluctantly took a bite of the eggs. “Thank you.”

“So where were you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Taking more time than needed to chew your eggs, you answered noncommittally, “Out with some friends. We just went around town a little bit.”

“Ah, well your parents said that you’ve been studying very hard, so you definitely deserved a break.”

“Thank you.” You saw this as a way out, pretending that your phone had buzzed in your pocket. Eyes scanning the screen as if you’d gotten a text, you started standing up sheepishly. “Speaking of, I missed lecture this morning, and my classmate just sent me the notes, so I really need to write these down and get back to studying.”

“I understand.” Jooheon stood up, giving you a bow as you skirted your way around the table. “Good luck, Y/N. Perhaps we could go out sometime after your finals, then. A reward.”

“Perhaps.” You repeated, having no intention of ever doing it. “Well, goodbye, Jooheon.”

Not even waiting for his cordial reply, you fled the room without another look over your shoulder. Locking your bedroom door behind you, you changed into different, still comfy clothes. Your other ones smelled of the saltwater and Yukhei, a lovely combination, but also had tinges of sweat, so you deemed them needing of a good wash anyway. Readdressing the mess of papers and textbooks on your bed, you tidied up a little bit, tucking some back into their folders before picking up the last textbook you’d been reading before Yukhei had swept you away.

It was still open to the textbook page that Yukhei had shaken out of your brain, and you set to work learning it over again, reading it aloud to yourself, “‘It has been said that a contract implied in fact must contain all the elements of an express contract. So, such a contract is dependent on mutual agreement or consent, and on the intention of the parties: and a meeting of the minds is required. A contract implied in fact is to every intent and purpose an agreement between the parties, and it cannot be found to exist unless a contract status is shown. Such a contract…”


	6. [six]

Despite trying to plan out your first real date with Yukhei, boba never ended up happening once you’d thrown yourself into finals study mode again. You felt guilty for having to turn him down over and over again, but at least you weren’t having to turn down Jooheon over and over again, he was sticking by his promise of leaving you alone until finals were over.

And as soon as you’d finished your last final of the year and had done a small moment of celebration in the classroom with Sicheng before walking out onto the main lawn of the university with him, you immediately called Yukhei.

“Y/N! Hey, baby.” Yukhei greeted you with the pet name he’d taken to calling you, sounding a little out of breath as if he’d run to pick up the phone.

“Hey, Yuk! I did it! I’m done with exams for the year!” You squealed, shaking Sicheng’s arm in excitement. He gave you a smile in agreement, staying quiet as you spoke.

“Really? Congrats! How about this, I’ll come pick you up and take you out for an early dinner, hm?” He offered, but you remembered your prior engagement with your college friends.

“Aw, I wish I could, but all the business majors, Sooyoung, and Sicheng are going to a late lunch in like ten minutes.” You sighed right as Sicheng pinched your arm.

You gave him a ‘what was that for?’ look, and he whispered under his breath, “Invite him with us, dumbass!”

Sticking your tongue out at your friend, you realized he was right, and cut off Yukhei’s reassurance to you that it was alright and that you could meet up later. “I’m not ditching you, I’m inviting you to come with me! The whole gang will be there, they all want to see you again!”

“I don’t want to intrude—”

“Shut up, it’s to celebrate the end of finals, and you’re coming right now.”

He laughed, a sound that made your chest tighten, “Alright, give me an address.”

At the barbeque place just a couple blocks over from the university, you arrived to find that you and Sicheng were the first to get there, asking for a table for seven. The waitress led you to a large booth, and the two of you started up the tabletop grill and ordered the first round of food. The others soon started trickling in, Taeyong, then Hyungwon, Heehyun, and Sooyoung altogether. You nervously checked your phone since Yukhei hadn’t arrived yet. But you refrained from contacting him, you didn’t know where he was coming from, so you didn’t want to call him needlessly.

Finally, you recognized his tall and broad figure walking through the door, head peering easily over everyone else. You made eye contact, grinning as you waved him over.

“Who else is—” Taeyong immediately stopped his question when he saw who you were smiling at. “Oh. Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Y/N brought a date.” Hyungwon said teasingly as Yukhei approached the table, and you refrained from rolling your eyes at him, instead focusing on Yukhei as you scooted over to give him room beside you.

“Hey, Yuk.” You kissed his cheek, a blatant poke at Hyungwon’s sarcastic comment. “How are you?”

“Hi, baby, I’m good,” He had a wide grin on his face as soon as you’d given him a peck, resting an arm around your shoulders. “How was your final today?”

“The worst. Right, Sicheng?”

Sicheng startled out of whatever kind of shocked trance that the whole table was in, giving a groan from beside you. “Yep, I thought about taking one for the team and stabbing myself in the neck with the pencil.”

“Well I’m glad you didn’t, because then I would’ve just passed instead of getting an A.”

“Oh, _that’s_ the reason you’re glad I didn’t. Not because you want me alive or anything.”

“That too.”

The waitress came back with the food, and being on the ends closest to the platters, Taeyong and Yukhei took it upon themselves to start grilling for everyone. Taeyong was admittedly a little better at it then your boyfriend, but Yukhei’s was still very much edible. Laughter and conversation floated around the table, and you thanked whatever force that moved all the gears in the universe that your friends weren’t being weird around Yukhei, or even addressing your sudden PDA.

As your late lunch/early dinner started coming to a close, Taeyong served up the last few pieces of beef to Yukhei and Heehyun while you continued nursing your glass of cherry cola. Yukhei’s arm had stayed around you, only migrating down to your waist during the meal. He ate with his free hand, laughing loudly right beside your ear whenever Hyungwon made a joke to his taste.

After the check had been split fairly evenly—as most of your friends never wanted to seem like they were abusing your fortune—you scooted out of the booth, stretching with a content smile. The fullness of your belly only made the feeling of the ending of your finals even more satisfying.

“Am I taking anyone home?” Taeyong offered as he spun his keys around his finger.

Sicheng raised his hand, as did Hyungwon, while the girls said they needed to run errands around here before they went home anyway. You didn’t even get the chance to think over the offer, Yukhei’s hand gripping yours tightly as he tugged you closer to him. “I’ve got Y/N.”

Your friend nodded, starting to give out goodbyes to the girls he wasn’t taking home. He went down the line, giving Sooyoung, then Heehyun, then you, one-armed hugs. “Beach day sometime, right?”

“Right!” Heehyun affirmed.

“Bye Yong, bye Sicheng, bye Hyungwon!” You waved goodbye to the men as they started towards Taeyong’s car.

Giving the remaining roommates their hugs goodbye, you waved them off down the street before looking to Yukhei expectantly. “You said you’re taking me home, let’s go. We can watch a movie or something together.”

“That sounds great.”

* * *

At your house, you were thankful that Jooheon’s car wasn’t in your driveway, nor were there any surprise guests inside. Just your brother’s babysitter, who was attempting to feed a stubborn Inguk again.

“Hey, Youngha,” You said sweetly as you stepped into the kitchen.

“Oh, hello, Ms. Y/L/N.” She greeted you brightly, still holding the spoon out towards your brother. But he held steadfast to his dog, twisting his head away from the utensil.

“I’ve got him, you can go home for today.”

“Oh, thank you!” Youngha set the food down, bowing to you, then Yukhei before grabbing her purse and shuffling out.

Standing in front of your brother’s high chair, you crossed your arms as you stared him down, knowing full well that his attention was trained on the man behind you. “You, sir, need to eat.”

“Yuk!”

“Nope,” You plucked the toy from his hands, and blocked Yukhei from his view. “You get Yuk after you eat.”

Inguk pouted, bottom lip quivering, but you didn’t waver. Eventually, he picked up his spoon and started shoveling his food into his mouth. With a fresh smile, you mussed up his hair affectionately as he continued eating. Waiting until his food and his glass of juice were done, you finally handed the plush dog back to him and stepped to the side, so he could see the patiently waiting Yukhei.

“Yuk!” He squealed out, dropping the dog to the floor and reaching his hands out for the human one. “You’re here!”

“Hey, bud, I am.” Yukhei stepped forward, warily looking at his outstretched arms.

“Up!”

“Ah, what do you say, Gukkie?” You stopped the older man from picking him up as you waited expectantly.

“Up, please!”

Satisfied, you grabbed his dish and juice cup, letting Yukhei safely take him out of the high chair. As you rinsed the dishes, you watched Yukhei place your brother on his hip, letting the toddler bonk his nose before nuzzling it into the little boy’s side, eliciting delighted giggles. Inguk attempted to do it back to Yukhei, only able to reach his neck, which was apparently ticklish as the man also giggled aloud. Placing the dishes in the dishwasher, you heard Inguk yell out, “Plane, please!”

And when you looked back up, sure enough Yukhei was holding the child above his head like a plane, gently maneuvering through the house as he made generic airplane noises. Thankfully, ceiling fans were only at the very tops of the vaulted ceilings, far out of your boyfriend’s reach. But because the height did worry you a little you kept a watchful eye on the two as Inguk yelled, “Plane again, please!”

“You’re getting better with him.” You commented approvingly in a small reprieve between airplane sessions, legs folded underneath you as you sat tucked into the corner of the couch.

“Really?” Yukhei’s face lit up as he lifted Inguk over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

“Yeah, you don’t seem terrified of a toddler anymore.”

“Oh no, trust me, I am. Lifting a child is terrifying! What if I drop him?”

Tapping on your brother’s head, you reassured Yukhei, “He’s got a thick skull, he’d be fine.”

Gukkie laughed at that, wiggling down the front of Yukhei as the man held him steady. He resettled on his hip again, beaming up at him. “Yuk!”

“I’m right here bud.”

“No, Yuk!”

“What do you want?”

“Yuk!” Inguk cried out in frustration, pointing somewhere insistently.

Looking over, you realized what he wanted. “Use your words, Gukkie.”

“Yuk dog-dog please.”

“Yep, I’ll get it.”

Having retrieved the stuffed animal from the kitchen floor, you returned to the living room to find him on the floor, looking up at you eagerly. You held it out to your brother. “Here you go, bud.”

“Thank you!” He wrapped his arms around its neck tightly as he cuddled it.

Yukhei was still looking bewildered, and you grabbed his forearm to drag him to the couch with you.

“Gukkie named his dog after you.” You explained, settling in beside him.

“Yuk!” Your brother emphasized your point, patting the dog’s head.

The boy beside you on the couch had a wide-eyed, purely joyful look on his face as he observed Inguk interact affectionately with the plush, stroking its ears, kissing its nose, and holding it as tightly as he could despite its enormous size compared to him.

“He did?”

“Yep.” You confirmed, slipping under Yukhei’s arm. “I told you he liked you.”

Yukhei ended up staying longer than you’d anticipated, partially due to the fact that your parents both had to stay late at work, and he insisted that you shouldn’t have to watch your brother all alone after an exam day. The logic wasn’t very sound, but the real truth of him just wanting to spend more time with you was apparent enough, and you let him continue to play with your brother to tire him out. They were currently playing the most unfair game of hide-and-seek you’d ever seen. Not only was hiding in the small spaces around your living room impossible for Yukhei, but every time he found Inguk, your brother would claim that it didn’t count. So it was safe to say that there was no way Yuk would be able to win anything.

Looking at the time, you yawned yourself, “Alright, bedtime, bub.”

Inguk pouted up at you, but nonetheless willingly took your hand to follow you to his bedroom, changing him into his pajamas. Taking him back out to the living room where Yukhei was still sitting on the floor, you gave him a small push on the back, “Say goodnight to Yuk.”

Your brother practically launched himself at Yukhei, wrapping his arms around his neck from behind. Stifling a giggle at your boyfriend’s distress over being choked out by a two-and-a-half-year-old, you were proud of him for gently peeling Inguk’s arms off from around his neck.

“Goodnight, Inguk.” Yukhei said once he’d stood your brother in front of him.

Inguk leant forward to press a big, probably messy, kiss to his cheek, “’Night, Yuk!”

“Ah!” He hugged him tightly before letting him skip back to your side.

Once you’d gotten him to bed, you returned to the living room to stand beside Yukhei. Ruffling his hair with the hand just above his head, a smile graced your face when he leaned his head against your thigh and wrapped his arms around your knees.

“Tired, bub?”

“No, just wanted to hug you.”

“That’s an awkward place to hug.”

“Well for once you’re taller than me.”

You wriggled your legs out of his grasp. “I’m sitting on the couch, join me if you want.”

And you plopped yourself onto your larger couch, Yukhei not far behind. In fact, he nearly crushed you as he tried to squeeze into the space between you and the back of the couch. Turning over to be face-to-face with him, you smiled softly, pressing a small peck to his nose. He let out a short burst of air as he grinned, prompting you to kiss his nose again.

“Cute.” You said approvingly, with one more small peck, this time on his mouth.

“No, I’m handsome.” He tried his best at putting away his smile, but a tiny giggle broke through anyway.

“A handsome cutie.”

One of his big hands rested on your hip, a comforting hold to both you and him. “We still haven’t gone on a first date.”

“I have my first day of full-time interning tomorrow, but Sunday is free for me.”

“Sounds good to me.”

The peaceful moment was broken by a shrill screech from down the hall. Groaning, you rolled yourself off the couch, successfully landing on your feet. “Be back in like, five. Or ten. Depends on why he’s screaming this time.”

In your brother’s room, you turned on the light, leaning in the doorway. Looking at him questioningly, you waited for him to stop screaming before asking, “What’s up?”

“I can’t sleep.”

“Yeah?” You said quietly, walking over to his bed as he looked up at you with watery eyes.

Feeling your heart twist, you offered, “Do you want to watch a movie with Yuk and I?”

He sniffled, and you picked him up. “Come on, bub.”

Burrowing his face in your neck, he continued sniffling as you cradled him close to you, walking back to the couch where Yukhei was still laying down. He sat up, letting you gently sit yourself down on the couch with Inguk coddled in your lap.

“What movie do you want to watch?” You asked the little boy softly, grabbing the remote from the table next to the arm of the couch.

“Zootopia.” Was his mumbled reply, and you nodded, stroking his back with one hand as you went through your on-demand movies.

Fifteen minutes in, Inguk finally took his face out of your chest to actually watch the movie. You were only half paying attention to the movie at this point, it being your brother’s favorite meant that you had to watch it about twenty times a month since it came out. Inguk was tucked under your arm in the corner of the couch, one of your hands resting gently on his tummy. Yukhei’s head was on your opposite thigh, your other hand absentmindedly running through his soft hair. And you smiled at how content and wholesome you felt.

Finally, you felt Inguk still beside you at the climax of the movie, and when you looked down, you saw that he was asleep. Feeling relieved, you went to let Yukhei know that you were going to stand up, but instead you saw that his cheeks were wet, tears brimming in his eyes as he continued watching the animated film.

“Are you crying?” You whispered to him, clearly catching him off-guard as he went to fervently wipe at his face.

“No.”

“Anyway, Inguk fell asleep. I’m going to put him to bed.”

“I’ll do it!” Yukhei offered, a little too loudly as Inguk mumbled something and squirmed.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He stood up, holding his hands out.

Giving him a final warning look, you handed over your little brother. Inguk moved a little bit but nonetheless stayed asleep as he was transferred. Yukhei started down the hallway towards the toddler’s room. Curious, you waited a few moments before following him quietly. A soft tune was coming from the room, and you curiously poked your head in. Your boyfriend was gently rocking side-to-side, singing some kind of lullaby in Cantonese to get your brother back to sleep. Your chest tightened as you watched the heartwarming sight.

* * *

When your parents came home later, your brother was fast asleep in his room, and you had shooed out Yukhei only minutes prior. You weren’t hiding him from them, but you were just too tired to bring them any kind of news other than your A on your Japanese final. You all had a small conversation about your days before everyone unanimously agreed to go to sleep, mumbling goodnights to each other.

* * *

Another day, another slightly less boring gala. Being a princess wasn’t so bad, you thought to yourself as you sat at your assigned table, holding hands under the table with someone who wasn’t technically assigned there. Early on in the party, you’d sneakily switched out Prince Hyojung’s nameplate from beside yours with Yukhei’s, which had been at a table in the far corner. Most couples were out mingling or on the dance floor together but seeing as how you’d already had to charm your way through talks with most of the CEOs in the venue, you felt that you deserved a break.

Soyeon was on Yukhei’s other side, Jungkook across from her, and the Lee cousins on his side of the table. You were all chatting amicably, laughter and jokes being passed along the table. Mark had been loosening up more easily at galas lately, probably from the soju he was now able to legally drink.

He had an arm around his cousin’s shoulder, pinching his cheek affectionately. “Minho, you know you’re my favorite, right?”

“Yes, I know.” Minho went along with it, patting the other boy’s leg. “I also know that you’re officially past tipsy.”

“Just a little bit.”

“More than a little bit, Mark.” Soyeon’s own cheeks had a pink tint to them, but she was able to handle her alcohol much better than your friend.

Mark stuck his tongue out her, making you laugh at how funny he was when he could finally drop the royal pretenses. Jungkook shook his head, taking a sip from his own glass as his eyes scanned the crowd. His face lit up when he recognized someone, moving to stand as two men stood at your end of the table.

Kim Namjoon and Park Jimin gave polite nods as they greeted the table, the latter looking more relaxed than his boss, suit jacket nowhere to be seen and sleeves rolled up haphazardly. Your male cousin gave them each a hug before starting introductions, “Hey guys. You remember my cousins, Y/N and Soyeon, right?”

“It’s wonderful to see you boys again.” Soyeon grinned, you knew that she was a little closer to Jungkook’s business partners than you.

“Of course, of course.” Jimin grinned, kissing your free hand. “Tae never shuts up about Y/N.”

Yukhei tensed, and you gave his hand a warning squeeze as you smiled back at Jimin, “Can’t say that I do the same.”

The man giggled as Namjoon added, “Nobody does.”

“And then we have Lee Mark and Lee Minho.” Jungkook continued introductions, Minho being careful to cover his cousin’s mouth as soon as he went to start whatever new drunk ramble. “And this is Wong Yukhei, his father’s the CFO of the new Hong Kong branch of NCTech.”

“Yes, we’ve met before.” The Bangtan Group’s leader bowed to Yukhei. “It’s good to see you again, Yukhei. How’s your father?”

“He’s doing great, really exceptionally busy now that business in the branch has picked up.” Your boyfriend replied, relaxing a little more.

“Well of course, everyone’s looking at NCTech now.”

Yukhei seemed flustered as he accepted the compliment, hand gripping at yours tighter. Namjoon changed the conversation, turning back to his partner. “Sorry to take you, Kookie, but Lady Shin is complaining that you haven’t said hi to her yet tonight.”

You stifled a giggle at the momentarily disgruntled face he made at having to visit Lady Shin, even if it was for a minute. Lady Shin loved every young prince and princess like her own grandchildren, but never hid that she had favorites, one of them being Jungkook. You were another, being the One True Princess, but had already received your choking hug and skin-crawling cheek kiss for the night.

“Soyeon,” Jungkook suddenly called for your other cousin. “Come with me, please?”

“I said hi with Y/N and Yukhei earlier.” She took a confident swig, making him pout.

“Please?”

“Take Mark.”

“No way am I bringing a drunk Mark Lee to Lady Shin.” He stayed firmly planted there, practically begging. “Please? I’ll owe you one. I can’t go see her myself, she’s like a spider and I’m some poor little grasshopper.”

Soyeon’s eyebrow shot up in amusement as she set her glass down. “Fine, fine. You’re paying for my bike’s next tune-up.”

“Deal.”

She stood up, giving those still at the table a momentary farewell before gesturing for your other cousin and the two Bangtan boys to lead the way. Mark gave a loud goodbye, which was interrupted by an equally loud belch, making the sober three of you erupt into various cackles and giggles and laughs. Minho patted his back firmly as if he was burping a baby, “I wish I could’ve recorded that!”

“That wasn’t me.” Mark denied it, still half-yelling.

“Shh, shh.” You shushed him through giggles, patting his arm. “Mark, you’ve got to be quiet.”

He pouted but nonetheless obliged, accepting the glass of water his cousin offered him.

Minho checked the time, “Ah, it’s socially acceptable for us to leave now. My aunt said we couldn’t leave before eleven. It’s eleven-oh-two. Perfect.” He stood, ushering Mark up with him.

“Bye, boys.” You released Yukhei’s hand to get up and give them both proper hugs. Mark was a little wobbly, but you figured that he could get to the car okay, as long as he wasn’t driving. “Minho, you’ve got a driver, right?”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” Your friend reassured you, giving you a half-hug as he supported his cousin with his other arm. “Bye, Yukhei!”

“Have a good night, Minho. Rest well, Mark.”

“You’re nice.” Mark said approvingly before Minho started leading him towards the exit of the venue.

After watching them leave for as long as you could, making sure that Mark didn’t trip and take them both down, you sat back down, resting your head in your palm, elbow on the table as you looked to Yukhei fondly.

“What?” He asked, mimicking your position.

“Nothing.” You took a few long blinks, thinking to yourself. “Thanks, bub.”

“For what, baby?”

“Being so wonderful.”

The corner of Yukhei’s mouth tugged into half a smirk, “You’re tired.”

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

“You only get mushy when you’re tired.”

“I compliment you when I’m rested!”

“Calling me a ‘fucking idiot’ is a compliment now?”

“No, I called you ‘ _my_ fucking idiot,’ actually.” You corrected, pushing on his shoulder in annoyance.

He caught your hand in his, softly kissing each of your fingertips. In between being loud and annoying, Yukhei had sweet moments that made you absolutely melt, like now. You took your hand back to gently run your thumb over his cheekbone, eyes tracing his face affectionately.

“Y/N.” He murmured, leaning into your touch.

“Hm?”

“I know that you’re busy interning with your grandfather this summer, but I’m going home in a couple months, to visit my family for a couple weeks. I’d like for you to come with me.”

“I’ve never even been to your home _here_.” You replied humorously, pointing out the fact that he had never invited you to his apartment in the just around two years you’d known him.

“I know, my roommates are just weird.”

“Weirder than you?”

“Amazingly, yes.”

“Really? Yuta and…”

“Johnny.” He finished, reconfirming, “Yuta and Johnny, yeah.”

“I’m starting to think that you’re ashamed of me.”

“No! Of course not! I’m ashamed of them, if anything.”

“How about… I meet them,” You proposed, “After we come back from Hong Kong?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Yukhei grinned, giving the inside of your wrist a small peck from where you still had your hand on his cheek, on the skin just above your silver bracelet. He pulled away, looking at you longingly. “I really want to kiss you.”

“Then do it.” You chuckled as you took in his alarmed features. “Yuk, it’s not like this is illegal or anything. We just haven’t told a lot of people. You’re allowed to kiss me in public.”

“Are you sure?”

Impatient and knowing that he needed validation that you really didn’t care about the opinions of the stuck-up royals, you leaned forward to crash your lips onto his. He eagerly kissed you back, cutting the kiss only after a few moments. Nonetheless, you both were grinning as he went to give you one last tiny peck.

“See? The world didn’t end.” You teased, patting his cheek before sitting back in your chair again to pick up your glass of cherry cola.

* * *

In that moment, the world didn’t end, but a half hour later as you tried to close the door behind you and Yukhei in the backseat of your family’s hired car, someone stopped it. “Y/N.”

Your blood ran cold as your eyes recognized the suit standing outside of it. Steadying your breathing, you gestured to Yukhei to wait, scooting yourself back out of the car. Your grandfather was standing there, holding the car door open.

“Hello, Grandfather.” You went to try to kiss his cheek, but him slamming the door startled you from doing so.

“Y/L/N Y/N.” He took a deep breath, face red as he was clearly trying to control his anger.

“Yes, sir?”

“Who is in the backseat of that car?”

“Wong Yukhei.”

“Why?”

“My parents couldn’t make it to the gala, and didn’t want to miss Yukhei, so they invited him to come to our house after.”

“And why would they want to see him so bad?”

“They like him very much.”

Your grandfather’s voice turned warning, “Y/N.”

“Because he’s my boyfriend.” You finally said, voice small but without a hint of regret.

Your hand had clenched into a fist by your side, your fingernails digging into your palm as you waited for him to say something.

“You’re fired.”

At those two words, your teeth bit down harshly on your lip to keep from talking back. You stood frozen, breathing deeply through your nose, not saying a word or moving.

“You’re not even going to try to fight for your position?” He continued picking on you. “You’re going to let your entire career and future in my company be ripped from you for some poor, irrelevant _commoner_?”

Shaking your head, you looked him dead in the eye, “I don’t want to work in your company. I’m taking over my parents’ branch, and you don’t hold the power to depose the CEO of any branch in the Jeon Conglomerate.”

“But I can remove any company from the Jeon Conglomerate, and your branch wouldn’t survive without it. You’d be blacklisted by everybody who owns any minute amount of stock in any company in Southeast Asia.”

You reached behind yourself for the door handle. “You’re an asshole.”

“Excuse me?” He bellowed, slamming his hand on the window beside you.

Inside, you could hear Yukhei scrambling around. You spat back, “And don’t you dare say this is what’s best for me. You’re selfish, classist, narcissistic, and a fucking asshole. Family means nothing to you unless they make you money. When I become CEO, go ahead and cut us out, we’ll do just fine without you.”

Yukhei had just gotten the door unlocked on the other side when you yanked your own open, pushing your grandfather off of it. Throwing yourself inside, you slammed it behind you.

“Drive. Run over his foot if you can.” You growled to Gyeomjin, crossing your arms over your chest.

As your driver pulled away down the street, you could still feel your blood boiling. Yukhei was quiet beside you as you silently fumed, neither of you saying a word, sitting apart from each other for the whole car ride to your house. Once you had closed the front door, you latched onto his wrist, throwing a short hello over your shoulder to your parents as you stomped past the living room, “Hi, Grandfather fired me! I’ll be out once I plan his murder!”

You continued towards your room, you didn’t want Inguk to hear you once you started going off about your grandfather, knowing that three-year-old-appropriate words wouldn’t come from your mouth.

“My grandfather had no fucking right to talk about you like that!” You snapped as soon as you’d thrown your bedroom door closed.

Yukhei was sitting on your bed as you paced angrily, “Y/N—”

“Who in the hell does he think he is?”

“Y/N—”

You still went on, practically foaming at the mouth. “He must be out of his fucking mind if he thinks he can just—”

“Y/N!” Yukhei barked, stopping your fuming. He lifted his head from where his hands had been holding it, defeat across his face. “He’s right. I’m not— I’m not royal. At all. Half Chinese, half Thai, all… average. _I_ have no right to be in with any of this, or with you. That’s why people don’t talk to my father at meetings, we’re not supposed to be there.”

“Oh, Yuk…” You said softly as you sat down beside him, lacing your fingers through his. “I already kind of knew that you weren’t a prince. And you’re a fucking idiot if you think that matters even a little bit to me. You know how much I don’t care about royalty or lineage.”

“I know, that’s something I love about you. But you have all these aspirations and big dreams of company takeovers and ruling your own economic empire. I’d ruin that for you. Nobody would want to make any kind of business deals… It would be the same thing that happened to the Lees. Their company’s stocks plummeted after Mark’s mother married in, same when Minho’s mother did too. I could be temporary for you, and I don’t want to destroy your future.”

“That’s… noble.” You kissed his temple sweetly. “But you must really be blind. All of the new princes and princesses that are inheriting businesses in the next ten years also don’t give a shit about lineage. It’s all business now. Me, Soyeon, Jungkook and the Bangtan Group, the Aroha boys, Minho and Mark, Jung Yoonoh, even the Kwon brothers to some degree.”

Yukhei was still as you spoke, presumably mulling over what you were saying. The only sounds in the room were your asynchronous breathing, the air conditioning, and your heart hammering loudly in your ears. Its rhythm had changed as you went from anger at your grandfather to your ardent love for Yukhei. He hadn’t said anything as you continued on, unresponsive to your peck. Your mouth was dry as you went to let go of his hand and stand up, but his grip on yours tightened as he yanked you back down onto his lap. Suddenly his arms were around you, and his face was buried in your chest, his own heaving as he struggled to keep his falling tears in check. You felt hot tears prick at your own eyes, both of your hands tangled in his hair as you held him close.

Yukhei mumbled something, the words unclear as his mouth was pressed against the skin below the hollow of your neck. You gently pulled back on his hair to get him to look up at you, “What’d you say?”

“I love you.” The most tender, loving expression was on his features as he whispered that, refreshing the tears in your eyes.

Your head dropped into the crook of his neck as you cried, hands falling to take purchase on his back. He pulled you even closer to him, shakily humming the same lullaby he liked to sing to Inguk whenever he put him to bed, vocal cords right beside your ear as he did so.

“I love you, too.” You finally choked out, letting Yukhei coax your head out of his neck to actually look at him as you repeated it. “I love you.”

He pressed your foreheads together, a grin slowly spreading across his face. You let yourself snicker a little bit before you kissed him, your noses smushed together as your lips connected. His hands moved to cup your cheeks, a habit he did almost every time you shared something longer than a peck. Yukhei continued softly kissing you, never stopping for more than a second as if oxygen wasn’t important and you were his lifeline.

There was a knock at your door, halting your movements, but Yukhei continued kissing you. “Yuk.” You mumbled against his mouth, tugging yourself out of his grip.

Looking in the mirror, your eyes were still red, and you dabbed at them with the back of your hand before you opened the door. Looking down, you saw your brother standing there, pajamas on and rubbing at his eye with one hand, his now well-worn plush dog in his other.

“Hey, bud.” You opened it wider for him to walk in. “Why are you awake?”

“I was waiting for you and Yuk to come home.” He explained, clambering up onto your bed and with no hesitation, into Yukhei’s lap.

Yukhei affectionately ruffled the little boy’s hair. “Alright, you saw us. You need to get some sleep, little man.”

“I also heard yelling.” Inguk added quietly, eyes falling to the stuffed animal in his hands. “Did you fight? You aren’t leaving, right?”

“No, of course not.” Your boyfriend reassured him as you sat down beside Yukhei to stroke your brother’s back.

“Gukkie, we didn’t fight.” You confirmed. “I was angry about something else, not at Yukhei. I promise he’s not going anywhere, okay?”

“Okay.”

“ _Now_ you need to be going to bed, little man.” Yukhei hooked his hands under your brother’s arms as he stood up to put him on his hip.

As you watched Yukhei take Inguk back to his bedroom, you realized that you needed to talk to your parents about your grandfather’s blatant threats to the future of your company. First, you wanted to change out of the only slightly ruined gala dress you were still wearing. Treading out of your bedroom in a pair of your shorts and one of the hoodies Yukhei had stored in your dresser, you found your parents sitting on the couch, each with a steaming mug. Beside a sweating glass of what was most likely cherry cola for Yukhei, there was another on the coffee table, and you gratefully picked it up.

“Hi Mom, Dad.” Your voice unintentionally cracked as you walked by them towards the other couch.

But as soon as your mother gently gripped your hand, you practically collapsed onto the cushion between them. She immediately wrapped an arm around you, and your father’s hand rubbed your shoulder soothingly. You thankfully didn’t cry again but were on the verge of it as you basked in your parents’ affection, feeling like you were a seven-year-old again, and that you had scraped your knees playing around outside with Hyungwon and his older brothers. But this time a bandage and a kiss from them wouldn’t fix everything.

“Tell us about it, sweetie.” Your mother requested softly. “You said it was something with your grandfather?”

“Yeah, yeah.” You blinked back the tears successfully, grasping the warm mug in both your hands. “He fired me… and said that—that he’ll remove our branch from the Conglomerate if I’m ever made CEO.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?” You scoffed before shaking your head. “He hates Yukhei.”

Your mother bit her lip as your father took over speaking, “We let this go too far.”

Afraid that he meant you dating Yukhei, you whipped your head around, but he thankfully added: “Letting your grandfather assume that you and Jooheon would marry. We should have said no as soon as he proposed it when you were born. I’m sorry, Y/N, we thought that by not outright approving it, he would forget about it at some point.”

“This is our fault.”

“No, mom, it’s not.” You reassured her, taking a sip of your tea. “It’s not your fault that Grandfather is a selfish, classist, and narcissistic… jerk.”

“I’ll talk to him tomorrow.” She declared, patting your knee. “After all, he is my father. Maybe I can knock some sense into him.”

“No, I need to talk to him. Even if you convince him to let our branch stay, he’ll never respect me like that.”

Your father squeezed your shoulder approvingly, “Remember that we love you, and—”

“Love Yukhei more than me?” You amusedly finished his statement, earning a light laugh from both your parents.

“Something like that.”


	7. [seven]

Airports were not your favorite place to be. The bustling crowds, screaming children, and utter chaos of the place just you feel helpless. Not to mention that you had a perpetual sinking feeling in your stomach since you had set up a meeting with your grandfather for when you returned from Hong Kong in two weeks. The fact that he agreed to meet with you was already a miracle, you highly doubted he would hire you back, much less keep you in the Conglomerate once you took over.

With those worries consuming your entire being, you couldn’t even focus on the man you were following through the busy terminals, one hand clutching his and the other your suitcase handle. You also had a carry-on bag on your shoulder, completing your luggage for your trip. Yukhei glanced over his shoulder when he noticed you lagging behind him a little. Admittedly, his legs were much longer than yours, but you’d been keeping up with him this whole time, so he was a little concerned.

“Are you tired, baby?” He asked with a frown, slowing his pace a little bit. “I know it’s a little early, but we’re almost to our gate, and I’ll get you some coffee when we get there.”

“I’m fine, thank you.” You reassured him, moving a little quicker again.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m sure.”

“You’re lying.”

“No, I’m not tired.”

“But you’re not okay.”

Glaring at him, you gave in, “I could be better, but it’s just all this bullshit with my grandfather, okay?”

Yukhei nodded in understanding. “Well, stop thinking about it, you get to forget about it and have fun for a couple weeks.”

“I know.”

“Don’t make me shake it out of your head again.”

Thinking back to the night you went to the beach together, which had been your first unofficial date in which he’d shook your head back-and-forth until your important business law textbook pages slip from your memory, you laughed. “Please don’t. I think I can get it out on my own this time.”

“Good.” He grinned, finally arriving at your gate.

When the plane touched down in Hong Kong, you were taken from your half-sleep as Yukhei was practically bouncing in his seat next to you with excitement. You looked at him with a loving smile as he started gathering his things back into his carry-on.

“You said your brothers are picking us up, right?”

“Brother, singular.” He corrected, grin still as wide as ever. “Renjun, but his friend Chenle is coming too, who might as well also be my brother.”

“Ah, got it.” You laced your fingers with his as the plane was maneuvered down the taxiways. “I’m excited.”

“Me too, I’ve got a bunch planned! Today we’ve got brunch with Renjun and Chenle, then they’re taking us home, so you can meet the rest of the family. But tomorrow, just you and me hitting the town together. I can take you to some of my favorite places.”

Amusedly following your boyfriend off the plane, your eyes scanned the crowd of people waiting for their own relatives. There were two boys that caught your eye, due to the sign that one of them was holding that said _Sushi + Girlfriend_ in somewhat messy handwriting. You knew that sushi was one of Yukhei’s nicknames, a play off the Mandarin pronunciation of his name. As soon as Yukhei spotted them, he broke away from your hand to run over, catching them both in a bone-crushing hug.

You slowly walked up behind them, satisfied with just watching your oversized puppy of a boyfriend nearly choke out his smaller counterparts. One was caught between screeching and laughing while the other laughed as he tried to wriggle out of Yukhei’s grasp. All three were yelling greetings to each other, switching between every language they knew, a mess of three boys who were excited to be reunited.

Finally they calmed down, and Yukhei gestured for you to join their small circle, “Ah, Y/N, this is my brother, Renjun, and a longtime friend, Zhong Chenle. Renjun, Chenle, this is Y/L/N Y/N, my girlfriend.”

Yukhei had introduced you in Korean, and while you guessed that the two boys were somewhat fluent in it, you nonetheless switched to their own native language to greet them, “Hello, it’s great to meet you two.”

They both seemed impressed, Renjun replying with a small bow, “Tell me if I’m being rude, but aren’t you a princess or something?”

Yukhei’s hand reached out to hit the back of his little brother’s head, but you were actually unfazed, seeing as how he just seemed curious rather than impressed or anything embarrassing to you. “Yeah, something like that.”

“So why are you going out with Xuxi then? He’s the least royal thing I can think of.” Chenle giggled, inciting a noise of indignation from the older boy he had just dissed.

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah, but didn’t you have like, an arranged marriage or suitors or something?”

Yukhei got a firm grasp on the smaller boy’s shoulder, shoving him forward in the crowd, “Don’t we have brunch to go eat?”

Renjun politely offered to take your luggage, loading it for you into the taxi that was waiting at the front of the airport. With you squished in between Yukhei and Renjun in the backseat, Chenle was perfectly roomy and content in the passenger seat beside the driver as all three boys started pointing out random buildings and landmarks to you in all different directions. The brunch place they’d chosen wasn’t far from the airport, and was a cute little place tucked into the back of a busy street which required a little more legwork to get to it.

As your boyfriend caught up with his companions, you skimmed the menu that had been handed to you. From what they were saying, during the previous school year, the both of them were nearly suspended for a chemistry class accident but had ended up finishing with good grades anyway. Yukhei reminisced in his own story of getting into a little trouble in school, unintentionally making himself sound a lot older than them. Renjun suddenly called out your name, and your eyes flicked up from the menu to look at him attentively.

“Y/N, do you need help?” He offered, referencing the menu in your hand, and probably guessing that you had just learned the basics for your trip.

“Oh, I’m good, thank you.” You shook your head, then returned to looking over the options.

Your boyfriend proudly offered an explanation, “Y/N’s been learning Chinese for about as long as you boys have, she’s got this.”

Nodding to the boys’ awed looks, you finally decided on a couple dishes you wanted to try, pointing them out to Yukhei. When the waitress came back, he ordered for the whole table, making sure to include the foods you wanted as well as what the younger boys wanted, and some things he thought you might like to try. He had chosen well, as you enjoyed most everything that was brought out, feeling comfortably full at the end of the meal.

“Alright, time for chaos!” Renjun announced cheerfully as you all left to go back to the taxi, who you figured they were paying very well to have waited in a nearby parking space during your whole meal. “It’s Mom, Dad, both sets of grandparents—Yāy and Khuṇ pū̀ flew in from Thailand last night—some aunts and uncles, cousins… Vivi is back from college right now!”

Yukhei immediately perked up, “Oh really? What color is her hair this time?”

“Pink. Uncle Liuwei was not happy about that.” He snorted, bringing up a picture of their exceptionally pretty cousin with her new strawberry pink hair.

“He wonders why she only comes back to visit us.”

“Woah, that looks really beautiful on her!” You commented, to which your boyfriend nudged your side.

“Don’t be getting a crush on my cousin!”

“Oh but she’s so pretty!”

Chenle then added, “Oh and most of my family is there too! My father didn’t want to miss a chance to meet with a member of the Y/L/N family. He’s a CEO, by the way.”

“Ah,” You nodded, habitually reaching for Yukhei’s hand. “Well I’m not here for business, just to meet and visit with the people who are important to Yukhei.”

“I can keep him at bay for you!”

“Thanks, Chenle.”

* * *

As soon as you stepped foot in the house, Renjun’s heads-up didn’t prepare you enough for the completely and utter chaos that was going on inside. Despite it being a fairly average sized house from the outside, it felt incredibly tiny as soon as you stepped in due to the mass of people packed inside it, all happily—or sometimes angrily—yelling at each other, children screaming as they played, and a TV and radio playing opposing sounds at full volume. You’d never been in a house that felt so much like a real home. Your whole life had been spent growing up in your huge “mansion,” visiting others in empty estates, copycat castles, and impersonal penthouses.

Someone exclaiming ‘Xuxi’s home!’ caused a momentary pause as dozens of pairs of eyes turned to you before the uproar began again, at an even greater volume than before. Kids were practically climbing up on Yukhei’s legs as women swarmed all four of you, pressing kisses to your cheeks and already complimenting you on how pretty you were. 

At some point, a male member of the family had taken your bags from Renjun’s hand, presumably to take them to your room. Unlike the crowding you routinely got at galas when you were younger, you didn’t feel the need to shrink in on yourself or run away, you just threw out a polite and cheerful greeting to anyone who came your way, half-bowing so much that you might have neck cramps by the end of the night.

Yukhei was having a blast as he interacted with his much younger family members, slowly making his way through the crowd with them still attached to him. Renjun excused the both of you to others, gently pushing you further into the room. 

Your boyfriend finally managed to get back to your side, one hand on the small of your back as he went to bow deeply to everyone, and you followed suit. Standing back up, he introduced you, “This is my girlfriend, Y/L/N Y/N. Y/N, this is my Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Yāy, Khuṇ pū̀, Uncle Liuwei, Aunt Zhangli, Vivi, Mr. and Mrs. Zhong, and uh, a lot more people.”

“Oh, hello,” You cleared your throat to get over your awkward squeak, turning to bow to his parents. “Thank you for having me in your home. It’s wonderful to meet you all.”

There was a chorus of ‘you toos!’ from the children who had returned to where they were sitting on the floor with their games, and some similar mumbles from the adults. Mrs. Wong gestured you over, shooing one of the kids away to open up the armchair beside her place on the couch. You sat down nervously as the previous hum of conversation resumed around you.

“So how was your flight?” She asked sweetly, and the aunt you’d been given the name of offered a cup of tea out to you.

“Early, but I did get to sleep on it. I don’t think Yukhei did, he was just so excited to be coming back.” You looked over to where Yukhei had settled onto the floor with his younger cousins, looking a bit out of place as he joined in on their game.

Aunt Zhangli was watching Yukhei interact with them suspiciously, as were several of the other adults in the room who you assumed were their parents. While you had a fond smile on your face from watching him play with them, the others were at the least worried while others seemed alarmed.

Vivi then sat on a cushion in front of your own armchair and the couch, her voice a low whisper, “Am I crazy or is Yukhei actually not terrible with kids?”

“Yes, he is.” His mother nodded approvingly, taking a sip of her tea before explaining to you, “Yukhei… he’s always liked kids just fine, he’s just never been good with them. There was an incident a little while ago—”

“You say that like he dropped a baby off a ten-story building.” Vivi shook her head teasingly at her aunt. “When he was about fifteen, he gave my little sister Limin—that one right over there—” The pink-haired girl pointed to a girl who was probably no older than seven, happily going along with the game everyone was playing. “A coin that she really wanted when she still a baby, without realizing that she’d stick it in her mouth. She didn’t even choke or anything, it passed right through!”

“But it was still irresponsible and dangerous, so you could understand our worry.” Aunt Zhangli retorted, and you now knew why Yukhei had frozen up when you first handed him Inguk, he’d been blacklisted from children by his own family.

Feeling the need to speak up for your boyfriend, you countered politely, “I have a little brother, Inguk—he’s four in just a few months—that Yuk is absolutely wonderful with.”

“So he’s gotten practice with kids. Good.” His mother relaxed, and even Aunt Zhangli seemed less intense in her gaze on the group on the floor.

“Yeah, I’ve actually got uh—” You turned your phone on to show the ladies your lockscreen, a picture of Yukhei with Inguk on his shoulders, the well-loved stuffed dog in one of your brother’s hands as the other held onto Yukhei’s much larger one. “Here. Gukkie even named the dog after him, Yuk.”

With that, the suspicious aunts finally took their scrutinizing gaze off Yukhei, and Vivi let out an audible squeal.

“Your brother is so cute!”

“Oh thank you.” You smiled, tucking your phone back away into your pocket.

By the time that lunch and dinner and post-dinner clean up and talks and goodbyes to the family members going back to their own homes, you were absolutely drained. It was well past midnight, and you were still tired from getting up early that morning and the slight jet lag. So as you stood on your tiptoes to put some plates away, you let out a big yawn that was interrupted halfway when someone wrapped their arms around your waist, startling you into nearly dropping the heavy plates right onto both of your heads.

“Scared me to death, Yuk.” You knew exactly who it was, reaching the rest of the way to place them on the shelf. “I could’ve dropped the plates. Or knocked my head onto the cabinet. Or drop kicked you to the Moon.”

“My bad.” He snickered, chin resting on your shoulder as he held you.

You yawned again, trying to remove his arms from around you, “Let me go, I’ve got some bowls to put away too.”

“Go to sleep, I’ll finish up here.”

“Your mother asked me to, and besides, it’s just a few more dishes.”

“You’re tired, I don’t want you dropping and breaking them or something.”

“I’ve got this.” You tried again to get out of his arms, except he tightened his grip on you, starting to force-walk you out of the kitchen.

He continued pushing you down the hallway, only half against your will now, “Go. To. Sleep.”

You were at the doorway to the bedroom you had been assigned, and finally gave up. “Fine, but I don’t want you staying up late either.”

“Be there before you can say my name!” He promised, taking off towards the kitchen, then stopping halfway to clarify, “Don’t actually test that.”

With a small smile, you shuffled into the small bedroom. It was Yukhei’s childhood bedroom, decorated the same as the day he had left for college. A sleeping mat had been set on the ground and bedding set up, but you already knew that Yukhei wouldn’t let you sleep there, or alone. Despite the bed clearly being made for one person, you knew that he’d insist on squeezing the both of you on there anyway, and slowly changed into your pajamas before crawling under the covers. Maybe if you fell asleep before Yukhei got there he’d leave you alone and just take the floor.

But when the door had opened and a few minutes later you felt a hand rubbing your shoulder, you knew that wouldn’t be it.

“Sleep on the floor, ’m tired.” You mumbled, not even opening your eyes as you spread yourself out further on the bed.

“Y/N.” He whined, nudging you again. “It gets cold in here at night. Come on.”

You reluctantly rolled over, allowing enough space for your boyfriend to slip under the covers, making it significantly warmer as his body was pressed to yours. One of his hands found yours, lacing your fingers together as his lips pressed one, two kisses to the side of your neck.

“Goodnight, Y/N.”

“Night, Yuk.”

* * *

The next morning you stayed in the house for breakfast, but as soon as the table was cleared and you both were dressed, Yukhei dragged you out with barely a goodbye to any of the family that was there. He excitedly told you about the general schedule he had for the day, including dinner at his favorite hot pot place with his best friend from high school—Qian Kun—whom he had asked not to come to the gathering at his house last night for fear of overwhelming you. Which had ended up happening anyway.

“Well your family is great.” You said as he guided you through the busy streets, tight grip on your hand. “And so is Chenle’s family.”

“Mr. Zhong came with a business presentation in the notes on his phone.” Yukhei snorted, and you shrugged.

“Chenle told him to put it away, it’s fine. Speaking of Chenle, he and Renjun are a lot of fun. Your other cousins, too.”

You were talking about when the younger kids and their families had already left, and you, Yukhei, Renjun, Chenle, Vivi, and his other cousins and relatives your age, Minnie, Yuqi, Xuanyi, Chengxiao, and Meiqi. That was when you were all able to relax the most, and it felt like you were just hanging with your normal friends. They were all telling the most embarrassing stories of Yukhei that they could think of, passing around a bottle when the parents and grandparents weren’t looking.

“I’m glad you like them, because Thursday is a beach day with most of the older cousins, plus Chenle and Kun.”

“I’m excited.”

“You’ve said that to everything.”

“Well because it is exciting! Being here and doing all this stuff and being with you. I couldn’t think of a more exciting thing.”

“You didn’t get a good night’s sleep, did you?”

“Why can’t you just let me live?”

“I’m sorry, baby, you’re just such an easy target.”

“You’re mean.” You stuck your tongue out at him, eliciting a grin as he kept tugging you down the sidewalk.

Soon enough, the sun was starting to set, and Yukhei changed course from the river you’d been busy taking pictures at towards the bustling downtown area again. You watched with intrigue as the carts that you passed by started their change from daytime vending to their nighttime street food. You wanted to stop and eat most everything you saw, but Yukhei was on a mission, the hot pot restaurant being his only destination in mind.

When you arrived, the restaurant was a cozy family-run operation, the sounds of the kitchen audible from the dining area. Yukhei craned his neck, trying to find his friend that had texted him a few minutes prior to let him know that he got there first. Your boyfriend had apparently spotted him, speeding by the hostess. You gave her an apology over your shoulder before following him to the table in the corner. The brunette man that had been sitting there stood up, a wide smile on his face as he hugged Yukhei.

“Yukhei!”

“Fat Kun!”

Kun quickly went from hugging Yukhei to half-strangling him as best he could, cursing him under his breath. “You’re just as disrespectful as I remember!”

Your boyfriend was still giggling to himself as his friend let him go, a smile on both their faces. Kun turned to you, bowing shallowly, “Ah hello! I’m Qian Kun. You must be Y/N.”

You returned his bow, a pleasant smile still residing from watching the boys’ initial interaction, “Yes, I’m Y/L/N Y/N. It’s great to meet you, Kun.”

Yukhei then gestured for you to scoot into the booth ahead of him, and Kun took his seat opposite the two of you again. As the three of you talked and ate, you found yourself not saying much, content to just eat and listen to the two childhood friends reminisce together. From what you could gather, Kun was a few years older than Yukhei, but the two had grown up across the street from each other. The older of the two had protected your boyfriend from an unfortunate bully on the playground “when he wasn’t a giant yet,” starting their “unfortunate” friendship. Kun lamented the days when Yukhei started growing taller than him and said that he could only ever go eat with him nowadays because they were relatively the same height when sitting down. And Yukhei once again brought up his childhood nickname for his friend, affectionately calling the older man “Fat Kun” again, just to see his eyes practically do cartwheels out of his head.

You pinched your boyfriend through his t-shirt, “Stop being a brat, Yuk.”

Kun seemed absolutely delighted, a soft giggle coming as your boyfriend pouted at you.

“Why are you taking his side?”

“I’m not taking sides, I’m telling you to be nice.” You shook your head, commandeering his glass of cherry cola.

“I am nice.” He mocked offense, gesturing to you sipping on the soda. “I’m letting you drink my beverage.”

“How kind.” You then took your chopsticks to take a heaping plenty of his own food. You felt a drop of the broth going down your chin, but Yukhei had already taken a napkin to it.

“Can’t take you anywhere, Y/N.” He shook his head teasingly as you swallowed the delicious food.

“Yeah, yeah.” You refocused on Kun, who had been watching the two of you, amused. “So what are you doing lately, Kun?”

“Finishing up post-grad, interning.” He explained, loading more of the raw meat in his own bowl. “Uh, eating, cooking, sleeping. Nothing interesting, I’m afraid.”

“Post-grad? What are you studying?”

“Linguistics. I’m hoping to be a specialized translator of some kind, not sure what field for yet.”

You perked up at the mention of language, “Translator for what languages?”

“Chinese, Korean, Japanese, English.”

“Aren’t those all the one you’re studying, Y/N?” Yukhei asked you proudly, despite knowing the answer.

“Yeah, they are!” You were practically beaming now as you conversed with Kun, able to finally completely nerd out over your love of languages and the nuances of them and how they could be related but so different, and how they change and evolve and blend and diverge.

You felt bad for practically taking over his best friend, but Yukhei didn’t seem to mind as he leaned back in the booth, one hand resting on the small of your back as he affectionately watched your expressive face as you rambled on passionately.

“Ah man, I wish Sicheng was here!” You sighed in awe, still in an intellectual euphoria from the brain vomit of a conversation you were having with Kun. “He’s in my Japanese major classes at university, and he’s a huge linguistics nerd too. So much so that, despite being from China and fluent in Chinese, he decided to learn Korean in order to then learn Japanese at a Korean university.”

“Okay, now that’s just borderline insanity.” Kun chuckled, shaking his head as you described your friend.

“That’s what I’ve been saying for the past four years, but the boy doesn’t listen.” You then turned to look at your boyfriend pointedly. “Like someone else I know.”

Yukhei was immediately on the defensive, “I fell off a chair _once_ and I’m never allowed to live it down!”

“Oh, he’s fallen off a chair more than once.” The man across from you snorted. “But what specifically did he do that time?”

At the end of your story of your birthday party that you had invited Yukhei to, you felt yourself unwillingly yawn, quickly snapping your mouth shut. But your companions had already noticed, a chorus of yawns coming in response. Yukhei tried to play his off as a sympathetic, instinctual yawn, but nonetheless you could see the darkness under his eyes and how he was clinging to you even more than usual during public dinners. He had one arm around your waist, pressing you close to him, and his other hand rested on your thigh as his warm breath fluttered against the back of your neck.

“Alright boys, we’re all tired.” You declared the dinner to be finished, waving the waitress over for the check.

They both groaned in reply, but a single tired glare from you stopped all arguments. Once the bill had been paid, you followed Yukhei out of the booth, his hand finding yours almost immediately. Kun held the door open for the both of you, releasing the three of you onto the still busy as ever downtown streets.

“This was a lot of fun, it was great to meet the girl Yukhei can’t shut up about.” Kun bowed to you, grinning cheekily at his friend.

“Well, he never shuts up anyway.” You played off Kun’s teasing compliment, feeling the heat rush to your cheeks. It was still sometimes hard to imagine that Wong Yukhei was in fact dating you, was in love with you, and had a crush on you long before you started dating, a crush that he’d told people about, and that you were now his girlfriend that he was still telling people about. Wild.

“Yeah, but he really likes you. It’s refreshing to see.” Your new acquaintance said honestly, turning then to your boyfriend to give another tight hug. “And you need to come visit more, Wong Yukhei.”

“Or you can get your fat ass over to Korea every now and then.” Yukhei retorted, earning another half-chokehold. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding!”

“We’ll see you Thursday, Kun!” You waved to him as he began his own trek down the sidewalks, giving the both of you a final goodbye over his shoulder before he completely disappeared in the crowd.

“See you!”

Yukhei sighed in content, squeezing your hand and beginning to lead you in the opposite direction, “Home.”

* * *

It was the last night that you were to be in Hong Kong, and you found yourself not wanting to leave. Not only because you’d grown close to many members of Yukhei’s family and friends and been able to be with him every day, but because when you did go back, that same day you would have your meeting with your grandfather. According to him, that was the only time slot he could fit you in. Exhausted from a trip and flight was not what you wanted to be when going into a meeting so crucial for your entire future. But that was how it would have to be if you wanted it to happen at all.

You were sat on the back porch of the Wongs home, your laptop humming lightly as it struggled to work through the extended period of humid warmth that was occasionally interrupted by a slightly cooler breeze. Dinner had ended well over two hours ago, and Yukhei’s dad had requested him for some kind of late-night errand, freeing up your evening for work. 

You wanted to be fully prepared with talking points and information that would hopefully settle something comfortable between you and your grandfather. You weren’t going to beg to be hired back, but you at least wanted him to be accepting of you being able to choose who you date, and of your wishes to not be thrown out from the Jeon Conglomerate when it came time for you to take over.

Briefly looking up from the dimly lit computer screen, you tried to blink the residual shapes of the light from your eyes, looking to the stars above you for a moment. The moon was just a small silver sliver in the sky, accompanied by the faint twinkle of only the strongest stars who could be seen through the cloudy night, light pollution, and your own eyes not having adjusted to the darkness yet. The distant sounds of Hong Kong nightlife, people roaming the streets, children playing in their yards, and the occasional honk or siren, found its way to your ears. Tomorrow you’d be in a plane in that sky, leaving with a vague notion of returning at some point in the future.

There was a knock on the doorframe, and you whipped around to see who it was. Renjun was standing there, a mischievous smile on his face as he gestured to your laptop screen, “Making Yukhei a Powerpoint on why you’re breaking up with him?”

You snorted, used to the younger brother’s teasing of both you and Yukhei, “No, for that I’ll be writing a twenty-page dissertation.”

“Thorough.” Renjun took the seat opposite to you on the porch, propping his feet up on the ottoman in front of him.

There was a moment of silence as you finished typing the thought you were currently working on, then closed the screen to give the boy your full attention. “So what’s up, Renjun?”

“Since I’m not taking you all back to the airport, I wanted to give you a proper goodbye.”

“Ah,” You nodded, slightly swaying in your seat.

“I’m going to miss you. And Yukhei too, but don’t tell him I said that.”

You chuckled silently, “I’ll miss you too, Renjun. And Yukhei will too, but don’t tell him I said that.”

“Thanks. What were you actually doing?” He referenced your laptop again, and you rolled the crick that was forming out of your neck.

“I have a meeting tomorrow that I was preparing for.”

“Man that sucks. What’s the meeting for? If I’m allowed to know, I get if it’s princess stuff and everything.”

“It’s with my grandfather, and it’s kind of princess-y, unfortunately.”

Renjun seemed to have a lightbulb, sitting up straight in his chair, “Wait— if you and Yukhei get married, would that make me like, a prince by marriage then or something?”

“First of all, marriage is that last thing on my mind,” You immediately retorted, then took a moment to actually think about his question. You didn’t know exactly how far royalty by marriage extended past the person marrying in and their children. “And uhm, I actually don’t know. I don’t think so, but that’d be something you’d have to ask someone else. Which you’re _not going to do!_ ”

You could already see the boy getting ideas, and quickly cut him off, only getting an ear-to-ear grin in reply. He had grown on you over the two weeks, mostly because of how much he reminded you of Minho and Hyungwon, two of your best friends whom you hadn’t seen in nearly two months. After you got everything with your grandfather dealt with, you were planning on having everyone over for a night of movies and being lame together, something you’d sorely missed.

“So what else are you doing this summer, Renjun? Summer before your first year at university, I’m sure you and Chenle have some big plans.”

He shook his head sheepishly, hand running through his hair at the back of his head, “Not really. For our friend Donghyuck’s birthday a bunch of us went to Disneyland for that. Some beach days here and there with our other friends, that’s about it.”

“That sounds like a lot of fun!” You reassured him, remembering back to when you were preparing to start your own undergraduate studies, and suddenly felt very old. “I would ask your major, but I don’t want to sound like every adult you’ve talked to in the past year, so instead I’m going to ask for more embarrassing stories of Yukhei.”

“Oh I’ve got plenty of those.” Renjun seemed relieved that you weren’t pushing him any further about schools and was more than willing to divulge chagrining childhood tales about his older brother to you.

Some time later, you finally heard the booming voice of your boyfriend echoing through the house, a fond smile creeping across your lips, “Yuk’s home.”

As if you’d summoned him, he appeared in the doorway when you looked over, eyes immediately finding yours. “Hey, baby.” He walked over to you to give your forehead a peck. “Why are you still up? We’ve got an early flight again, and then you’ve got that meeting.”

“I was talking to Renjun.” You explained simply, gesturing to his little brother.

Yukhei rounded on the younger boy, “It’s awfully late for you too, Renjun.”

“You’re not Mom.” He snorted in response, but nonetheless stood up before bowing to you, a pleasant smile on his face again. “Goodbye, Y/N. It was wonderful having you over these past two weeks.”

“Ah, you get a hug.” You shook your head, standing up to wrap your arms around him. “Bye, Renjun.”

He squeezed you briefly, letting you go to turn to your boyfriend, giving him a hug too, “See you, Yukhei.”

Yukhei ruffled his younger brother’s hair, a wide smile on his face as he quickly turned it to half a playfight, both going to put each other in chokeholds before it quickly fizzled out. Renjun gave you a final nod as he reentered the house and retreated down the hallway towards his bedroom. Stretching, you sat yourself back down on the chair and returning your computer to your lap.

“What’s that?” Yukhei asked with a frown as he looked over your shoulder at your screen.

“Something I need to finish really quick, then I promise I’ll go to bed.” You said, fingers flitting across your screen, hand going to delete before fervently retyping a sentence you didn’t like.

“Are you making a presentation for your meeting with your grandfather? Y/N, I don’t think it’s that… serious. It’s your grandfather.”

“Which is why I know that it _is_ that serious.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.” He sighed, kneeling beside the chair, arms on the armrest and his head resting upon his arms. He looked up at you attentively, half a disappointed simper on his face as he watched you work.

You offered him a smile of your own that was meant to be reassuring, but you could feel your stress seeping into it. Going back to typing, you tried to ignore Yukhei as best you could, wanting this meeting to go perfectly. You knew that he was reading it over your shoulder, and could feel the disappointment radiating from him, but you continued nonetheless. Yukhei didn’t know how your grandfather could get, and how much he treated family relations like business relations. He would never take you seriously unless you came more prepared than him, which was hard to do; you had to come prepared with facts and reasoning while he just had to come with his own concrete opinions. You were fighting an uphill battle.

A ringer going off startled you, causing you to nearly send your laptop flying off your legs. Gently setting it down on the table, you picked up your phone, seeing who had texted you. It was Soyeon, and you smiled to yourself as saw the messages stream in; she had a proclivity to spam rather than put it all in one text.

[soyeon: your mom told me about your meeting with grandfather tomorrow, i’ll be rooting for you!]

[soyeon: besides, we won’t need him when we take over 51% of the conglomerate anyway]

[soyeon: but also remember that he is our grandfather, and he still loves you]

[soyeon: seriously, he does. he told me the other day how much he regretted pushing you away]

[soyeon: so just, don’t treat it like a business meeting, he already thinks that you’re going to be cold with him]

[soyeon: okay i’m done now, goodnight!]

Clicking your phone back off, you took one look at your laptop screen before wordlessly clicking the ‘x’ button. You closed your computer to turn to Yukhei, who seemed satisfied that you weren’t working on it anymore.

“Sleep sounds fantastic right about now.” You declared, moving to stand up, but Yukhei’s hand caught yours, tugging you back into the seat. “Hm?”

“I—wait, I’m going to sit for this. Kneeling would not, uh, not work.” He mumbled, scooting your laptop over to sit in front of you on the low tabletop instead. “I don’t—I’m not—it-it’s not what you think it is, okay?”

“Okay?” You repeated in confusion, his words igniting worry throughout your being.

Yukhei fumbled to get something out of his pocket. When he finally did, you saw that it was a soft velvet box, and your eyes widened to the size of dinnerplates. He saw your shock and clearly knew where your mind was going, “I’m not proposing! I promise, I know it’s way too early to even be thinking about that.”

Your heartrate immediately dropped back down to healthy levels, and you audibly sighed. Both of you let out breathy chuckles of relief as he opened the ring box to reveal a beautiful amber gemstone set in a simple silver ring.

He went to explain as you plucked the ring from the case, “I saw this while I was out with my dad and it reminded me of the first time we met. When you were wearing that suit with all the amber and rubies on it. So I got it for you. And that’s it… no marriage.”

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” You pulled him forward by his neck to give him an appreciative, long kiss. When you had pulled away, you purposefully slipped it onto your right hand, a grin spreading across your features. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He was grinning too, grabbing your hand to pull you up with him. “Now we need to go to sleep.”

* * *

Your hands fidgeted at your sides, going between fiddling with the hem of your pencil skirt and smoothing it down in order to look presentable. Despite the meeting being with your grandfather, it was still in his office building, and you felt inclined to dress how you did when you had interned here. Yukhei had come with you for moral support but you already told him that he couldn’t come in the room with the two of you. This had to be something you did on your own.

A yawn pried your jaw open, and you slapped a hand over your mouth to stifle it. You’d gotten off the plane from Hong Kong not even two hours ago. Fanning at your eyes that had watered from the yawn, you desperately hoped that your waterproof mascara actually was what it claimed to be. Yukhei gazed over at you with a sympathetic look as he too held back a yawn. You were almost jealous at how that was the only indicator of him being tired at all. No bags were under his eyes, his hair was perfectly washed and styled, and the suit he had adorned was crisp, looking brand-new. He had gotten a much better night’s sleep than you, you’d tossed and turned with nerves for a good portion of the night

You adjusted your blouse, then your hair, then your pencil skirt for the probably fiftieth time since your grandfather’s secretary had sat you down in the lobby outside his office and asked you to wait since he was currently in a meeting with someone else. Yukhei’s hand grabbed yours to stop your fidgeting, lacing his fingers through yours. You let out a shaky breath as you tried to calm yourself down, barely able to look anywhere but the floor.

“Y/N,” Yukhei murmured, not needing to speak much louder in the dead quiet waiting area. “Y/N look at me.”

You forced your eyes up from your black flats to your boyfriend’s face. His warm brown eyes easily found yours, a soft smile spread across his features, encouraging one of your own to start tugging at your lips.

“You’re going to do great, baby. Everything will end up okay.”

“I know, I know. Soyeon texted me last night saying that Grandfather was going to be apologetic, but I still don’t have a great feeling about this.” You shook your head, leg bouncing fervently as your teeth took purchase on the inside of your lip, chewing at it.

“Hey, hey.” His other hand stopped the incessant movement of your leg, squeezing your knee briefly before moving it to cup your cheek. “I believe in you, baby. I love you.”

That grin did finally come to your face as his simple but encouraging words, “I love you too.”

“Now, what do you think about ice cream and a nap after this?”

“I think that sounds absolutely perfect.” You let him distract you from the situation at hand. “And then do I get to meet the weird roommates?”

“Not today, we both need to just chill out for a day. We can meet them for dinner Monday probably, I think they both have that night off.”

“That works for me.”

You were still smiling fondly at Yukhei, pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. He retaliated with a soft peck right between your eyebrows, forcing them to unfurrow. “I love you.” He muttered again, giving you one more kiss on the lips. “So much.”

The sound of a door clicking open followed by footsteps and two men’s voices snapped you from the lovely moment you were having with your boyfriend. Your head snapped up to look at who it was, and you felt you throat constrict for a moment. Lee Jooheon was shaking your grandfather’s hand, exchanging farewells. The younger prince’s eyes flicked to you as he turned from your grandfather, briefly looking over your current position with Yukhei, still holding his hand while his other was resting on your cheek. You went to stand up, dropping Yukhei’s hand as you walked forward to meet him in the middle.

“Hello, Jooheon.” You bowed shallowly to him, watching as he returned it.

“Hello, Y/N, Yukhei,” He nodded to the man still sitting before, who gave him a similar one. Jooheon’s voice dropped as he took a step towards you. “Y/N, you could have just told me no. I’m sorry if I made you feel as if you had no choice, that wasn’t my intention.”

You were relieved at how well he was handling it, and you started to feel bad for having not rejected him earlier. He had spent all these years respectfully pursuing you when instead he could have been finding someone who was actually interested in him. “I forgive you, Jooheon. I’m also at fault, I should have said no instead of leading you on like that, so I’m sorry as well.”

“And I forgive you. There, we’re good!” Jooheon broke out into an ear-to-ear grin, dimples forming on his cheeks and his eyes becoming joyful crescents. You can’t remember ever seeing him smile like that and were happy that he was now happy.

He took a few more steps towards the exit, stopping just before it to give you and Yukhei a final wave, “Guess I’ll be seeing you two at CEO Jung’s anniversary party next month, then!”

With that, Jooheon exited the room, leaving you to turn to your grandfather, who had been standing by his office door the whole time. You held back a wince when he frankly gestured for you to come into his office. He closed the door behind you, motioning for you to take one of the seats in front of his desk. To your surprise, he took the one beside you. You realized that you had left your laptop case out in the lobby, and felt almost naked as you sat there, immediately fidgeting again.

“He’s handsome.” Your grandfather began the conversation, and you blinked several times, trying to figure out who he was talking about considering that you had just interacted with Jooheon _and_ your boyfriend. “Yukhei is.”

“Oh, uhm, yes.” You let out something akin to a relived sigh, but it was short, and you didn’t feel relieved at all.

“So how did you meet?”

You were still confused, not imagining this to be how the meeting would go at all. But nonetheless, your grandfather seemed serious about the questions he was asking, so you had to answer, “At a charity gala, almost two years ago. I think it was the one that Lady Shin was having for uhm, the rainforests or something.”

“Ah, I don’t think I attended that one.”

“Yes, it was only Soyeon and I.”

He nodded, standing in order to access the minifridge he had behind his desk. “Do you want a water, Y/N?”

“S-sure.” You agreed, accepting the mini water bottle from him, eyeing him cautiously as he went to sit back down beside you.

“Y/N,” Your grandfather sighed, and you braced yourself for the oncoming lecture. “I’m sorry. I realize now that I’ve never been an… approachable figure in your life. I guess that I just wanted you to be strong in whatever you did and didn’t realize that I was excluding standing up to me, in that. Your mother contacted me—”

Your jaw dropped, and you immediately went to try to rebuild your reputation as self-sufficient, but he continued, having seen your face.

“She did tell me that it was against your wishes, don’t worry. She came by to tell me to ‘get my head out of my ass,’ and that you were happy with Yukhei, and that her and your father and Inguk all approved of him. So… I’m willing to give him, and you as CEO of your branch, a chance.”

And _that_ was when you nearly collapsed in relief, head falling into your hands and you roamed your cold fingers across your face then into your hair. Picking your head back up to look at your grandfather, he seemed unsure of what to do as your eyes started watering. He watched you tilt your head back, dabbing at the corners of your eyes to hold them at bay.

You finally found your voice, choking out a “Thank you, Grandfather” before launching yourself forward, wrapping your arms around him tightly. You honestly couldn’t remember the last time you’d given your grandfather a genuine, loving hug. It felt nice. He slowly went to reciprocate the hug, patting your back with his open hand, the other still holding his bottle of water. Sitting back in your chair, you smiled at him, repeating your thanks. The aged, worn face of the man sitting in front of you, inch by inch, moment by moment, broke into a nearly blinding grin.

“Well, bring him in here! I need to meet him!” He shooed you up out of your seat.

You nearly stumbled going towards the door, opening it and peering out where Yukhei was still waiting patiently. His head snapped up to look at you, concern turning to surprise as you bounded over to him with a huge smile across your features. You held out both your hands for him to take, which he did with a confused yet loving smile, letting you pull him up then tug him towards your grandfather’s office. Pushing the door open, you gripped Yukhei’s hand tightly. Your grandfather had moved to sit behind the desk, opening up the chair beside yours for your boyfriend.

The older man stood, walking out from behind the desk to inspect Yukhei. He took in his dress shoes, suit, and respectfully confused look on his face. Your boyfriend clearly didn’t know what he was supposed to do, waiting for your grandfather to make the first move.

He stuck a hand out to the younger man, “It’s nice to meet you, Yukhei.”

“You too, sir.” Yukhei eagerly shook his hand, adding in a polite nod as everyone went to sit down.

* * *

Jooheon was right when he said that he would see both you and Yukhei at CEO Jung’s anniversary party. The two of you were at the edge of the dance floor together, not really listening to the music, just swaying to your own rhythm, your bare feet on his dress shoes, ear pressed to his chest, and his hand holding yours comfortably. To an outsider, it looked as though you two were lost in your own world, sharing sweet nothings. In reality, you exchanged quips about the other partygoers together, stifling your laughter as to not give yourselves away. So in a way, you really were in your own world, a safe, loving, giggling bubble together. And as you lifted your head to look up at him, you admired the beautiful man that you were utterly in love with. He was already looking at you, apparently admiring you back.

Yukhei sweetly pressed his lips to yours, sharing a dizzying kiss that might have lasted an entire eon or so. You weren’t really counting. Your free hand had moved up to cup his cheek as both of his were occupied with keeping you up. Your lips had barely disconnected when he bent his neck to rest his forehead on yours, his shallow breaths ghosting where his mouth had just been.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” You squeezed his hand in return before stepping off his feet.

Your boyfriend was near pouting as you created space between the two of you, following you as you led him off the dance floor, “Where are we going?”

“I heard there’s cherry cola at the drinks table.”


End file.
